Seeds and Breeds for the Future Act

Seeds and Breeds for the Future Act

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide competitive research grants for the development of public cultivars (i.e., seeds) and animal breeds. The bill defines a public cultivar and public animal breed as the commercially available uniform end product of a publicly funded breeding program that has been sufficiently tested to demonstrate improved characteristics and stable performance. Further, if intellectual property rights are asserted, they are in the form of plant patents or plant variety protection and not utility patents.

USDA must give priority to high-potential research projects that lead to the release of public cultivars and animal breeds, including those with specified adaptations, features, and benefits (e.g., that are regionally adapted, environmentally resilient, or of indigenous and place-based importance and are endangered).

Any person who receives title to a plant patent or plant variety protection developed with grant funds may grant the exclusive right to use or sell that public cultivar or animal breed to another person only if that person agrees to substantially produce in the United States any cultivars or animals embodying, or produced through the use of, the public cultivar or animal breed.

The bill also establishes a coordinator for public cultivars and animal breeding research within the USDA Research, Education, and Extension Office, whose duties include developing a strategic plan and promoting collaboration.