Employee & Producer-Owned Cooperative Since January 2022

Employee and Grower-Owned in the Intermountain West

Snake River Seed Cooperative has been in operation since 2014. At the end of 2021, the business transitioned from a single-member LLC owned by Casey O’Leary to a multi-stakeholder cooperative. 4 of its current employees and ten of the almost 40 seed producers have become invested member-owners of the cooperative. We anticipate grower ownership will increase yearly, we are only able to include 10 per year based on securities law in Idaho.

Snake River Seed Cooperative occupies an important niche as one of the most successful bioregional seed companies in the Intermountain West. We work with seed producers around our bioregion to steward a selection of almost 400 varieties of vegetable, fruit, flower, and herb seeds, including several dozen Intermountain West native plants.

We package these seeds into seed packets and sell them in regional independent garden centers and natural food stores. Our entire inventory is available through our online store, including exclusive varieties! Our passionate and expanding customer base seeks out our seeds because of our commitment to selling 100% open-pollinated, untreated, and un-patented seeds, grown by their own regional farmers, committed to following organic practices in their fields.

Among the things we are most excited about in our cooperative transition are a sliding scale buy-in where member-owners can choose the amount they can pay to buy in and become equal owners, and the ability to work with our existing and owner growers. This model of collective ownership of a business such as ours where both workers and producers are equal owners is unique in our region. We are excited to be creating a road map that other businesses may be able to follow to lead to more equitable and empowering models of doing business in the 21st century.

Board of Directors

Angus Hughes

Board President

Angus Hughes is an Idaho mountain man, gardener, and forager. He has volunteered on several non-profit boards and likes the non-violent communication style. He believes that good leadership starts with good listening skills, and is rooted in commonly held values. He is excited and grateful to work with the awesome SRSC as a seed grower, coop member, and board member.

Kelly Kingsland

Board Vice President

Kelly Kingsland has been growing vegetables for market in Moscow Idaho since 2001, and seeds for the Snake River Seed Coop since 2017. She is thrilled to get to serve on the first-ever Board of Directors of the Snake River Seed Co-op and sees it as an honor to work with the stellar individuals who comprise the staff and BoD. Kelly has lived in Idaho for 51 years and welcomes the opportunity to expand the conscious intention that is growing food for her local community, outward to helping to steer the Coop in its mission to engage in regional economic models that embrace environmental ethics, seed sovereignty, and economic and racial justice.

Casey O'Leary

Board Secretary

As the co-founder of SRSC, Casey has been intimately involved in the organization since its inception, working arm-in-arm with other seed freaks to grow it from a tiny seed to the flourishing bioregional resource it is today. Cooperative management has always been a core philosophy of the business, but it took over 7 years to actually make the transition to a legal cooperative. Casey proudly participated on the cooperative transition committee, and is now grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors. She enjoys edu-taining folks about the wonders of the natural world, and the wonders of seeds specifically. And she really, really loves growing lovage.

Ana Sigler

Board Treasurer

Ana is currently the Fiscal Affairs Coordinator for SRSC and formally a grower (Plum Shed Seeds). As a lover of number-crunching, spreadsheets, organization and quietly working behind the scenes, she loves holding down the role of Treasurer. She has been working with budgets, data, and numbers in general for many years. Her background is in Ecological Restoration and she has a Bachelor's Degree in Conservation Biology from Kent State University. She lives in Sandpoint, ID and works remotely for the business. She lives with her family in Sandpoint, ID where she grows copious amounts of flowers (both annuals and perennials).

Katie Painter

Board Member At Large

Katie lives on an urban homestead in Garden City where she grows flower seeds for the coop, grows a garden, and keeps chickens and bees. She has been growing seeds for Snake River since the early days of the coop and really appreciates all of the amazing folks involved in this project, and the opportunities to learn about new plants, amazing varieties, and all the details that go into growing and packaging viable seeds! Katie also works for a non-profit that makes learning materials for farmers (isedsolutions.net), and gets to help some of her favorite local non-profits with fundraising. Aside from work, she enjoys exploring the wilds of the Intermountain West with her family and making sure her kids can identify at least a few plants.