Staple crops are pretty important to the welfare of almost everyone in the country that uses them, right? Developing them is expensive and requires lots of people with high-grade scientific educations, right?
To me, that sounds like the kind of situation that would benefit from being made public. I mean, the theory makes sense: taxpayers share the burden of developing the plants they all consume. Something like the NSF's grant funding for most other science would work really well. This kind of situation would also facilitate a more permissive attitude toward sharing knowledge and seeds to help intellectuals and hobbyists (the same way universities make resources in other fields available to intellectuals and hobbyists).
To me, that sounds like the kind of situation that would benefit from being made public. I mean, the theory makes sense: taxpayers share the burden of developing the plants they all consume. Something like the NSF's grant funding for most other science would work really well. This kind of situation would also facilitate a more permissive attitude toward sharing knowledge and seeds to help intellectuals and hobbyists (the same way universities make resources in other fields available to intellectuals and hobbyists).