But you were making a blanket statement about research when for at least the half time of agricultural research it was publicly funded (if you roughly extrapolate the trend to today it may be more private R&D but not by much).
We're a capitalist country. The Federal Seed Act isn't really "federal seeds" but rather the government managing or just observing and regulating private seed banks. That's not questionable at all. The question is whether or not R&D itself is private or public and whether or not it can continue without seed patents. I think it can. If it's public! 
Of course, as I said in other posts in this thread I do not think that seed patents are in any way threatened, so those who believe private R&D is the mover of hybrids can sleep safely. I lived on a farm as a kid, we never had any big crops (only about 5 acres) though so as Bowman says, "I'm not a farmer." But I can appreciate the effort that goes in to running a farm (we just grew food to feed our family of six and raised chickens and sheep for wool which we sold). And I can even appreciate the idea that if seed patents go away farmers will be threatened. But as I said, and I know I'm repeating myself, there's nothing precluding the public from doing seed research again if the patents go way. And, to repeat myself further, I don't think they will go away. The SCOTUS will rule in favor of patents.
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