The Accidental Seed Heroes by Adam Alexander with Alex McAlvay

Join us for a conversation with seed guardian for the Heritage Seed Library and award-winning film and tv producer Adam Alexander to mark the release of his new book, which documents the new generation of growers who are breeding new varieties of produce that will help create a sustainable future for our planet. He will be joined by Assistant Curator at New York Botanical Garden Alex McAlvay, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

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Across the world, chefs, farmers, plant scientists and backyard growers are doing something extraordinary: creating new generations of fruit, vegetables and cereals, all bred specifically to flourish locally, taste delicious, and contribute to our food future.

In The Accidental Seed Heroes, Adam Alexander dons his seed detective homburg to meet these twenty-first century seed heroes, who are not only championing traditional varieties but also breeding delicious new ones that will help create a sustainable future for our planet.

We don’t all need to become backyard breeders or even, like Adam, accidental ones. We don’t even need to eschew, as growers, the modern hybrid cultivars our seed catalogues are stuffed with or, as consumers, boycott those same uninspiring specimens that populate our supermarket shelves. Adam just wants that choice to be better informed and infinitely more diverse and enjoyable.

This story is a celebration of the locally and sustainably grown produce, whether traditional or innovative, that is at the heart of all our food cultures and empowers our rural communities and farmers. Adam believes these new varieties of fruits, vegetables and even grains will not just offer us all nutritious and delicious food but also be part of the solution to combating climate change and returning fertility to our soils and biodiversity to our land.

Adam Alexander is a consummate storyteller thanks to forty years as an award-winning film and television producer, but his true passion is collecting rare, endangered but, above all, delicious vegetables from around the world. He lectures widely on his work discovering and conserving rare, endangered garden crops, and his knowledge and expertise on growing out vegetables for seed is highly valued by the Heritage Seed Library, for which he is a seed guardian. Adam shares seeds with other growers and gene banks in the USA, Canada and the EU, and he is currently growing out seed of heritage Syrian vegetables to be returned to the Middle East as part of a programme to revive traditional horticulture. He has appeared on Gardeners' World and the Great British Food Revival, CNN's Going Green and Radio New Zealand.

Find out more: TheSeedDetective.co.uk / Twitter @vegoutwithadam / Insta @theseeddetective

Alex McAlvay is an Assistant Curator in the Center for Plants People and Culture at New York Botanical Garden. His research is focused on understanding the relationships between humans and their environments, the evolutionary and ecological impacts of humans on plants, and the traditional stewardship of plants by cultures and communities. His work ranges from genomic research to understand how humans have shaped plants through domestication to ethnobotanical projects to support the continuity and revitalization of cultural traditions related to plants. His current projects are focused on reviving resilient traditional cropping systems in Ethiopia and Republic of Georgia, studying the ecology of forest gardens in the Pacific Northwest of North America, documenting the flora and uses of plants of the Shinnecock Nation on Long Island, investigating the intersection of language and plants in Western Mexico, and reconstructing the evolutionary history of Brassica crops.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rizzoli Bookstore, 1133 Broadway, New York, United States