This is also not true. There is public funding going into creating new biotech varieties and publicly distributing them. Last year, for example, Arkansas released its first public roundup ready soybean (http://arkansasagnews.uark.edu/8273.htm). Sadly though these researchers had to wait for the patent to expire.
The variety is "new" as it comes from the insertion of the rr1 gene into the University of Arkansas public breeding line as opposed to the lines used by Stine, etc. in the private sector.
But presumably the significant gene of interest was the "roundup" gene (for lack of a better term) that provided the glyphosate resistance, no? Wouldn't that be the gene that is covered by the patent and the one that really matters? Is the rr1 gene related somehow?
