In 2004, Ken Greene was working at a tiny library in a small, Hudson Valley town when he got an idea: add seeds to the library's catalog.

That effort led to the creation of the first seed catalog in a public library in the country, the Valley Educational Seed Saving Exchange and Library, in Gardiner, New York.

In this video from the 2015 Seeds of Change Conference, Greene describes how his idea has blossomed into a larger enterprise—the Hudson Valley Seed Company—that embraces regenerative thinking, art, and sustainability.

Greene is also a cofounder of Seedshed, which cultivates an ethic of seed stewardship on farms, in gardens, and within communities. Seedshed offers holistic, seed-literacy programs that protect local cultivars and serve as a catalyst for growing social, food, and seed-justice solutions.