The Seed Commons aims to support the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust in their efforts toward land and food sovereignty by introducing programs protecting seed sovereignty for BIPOC farmers in the Hudson Valley. Seed sovereignty across the US is threatened by corporate privatization of seeds, as well as seed contamination and insidious litigation practices by monopolizing corporations. The seed commons aims to combat this: the project is about transitioning away from capitalist, ownership-based models toward commoning models of stewardship to imagine new ways of existing outside of commodity consumption. And to do this, the existing site—which contains three department stores, a typology which is becoming obsolete—transitions slowly over time: the northern building becomes housing for seed stewards, the central building transforms into a seed library/exchange/greenhouse space, and the southern building opens up to become a bee garden to attract and protect pollinators.
