Seeds for the Future Act
This bill amends the Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act to require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure that at least $50 million of USDA grant funding is used each year for competitive research grants that support the development of public cultivars.
A "cultivar" is a variety of plant that has been intentionally selected for use in cultivation because of its improved characteristics. A "public cultivar" is the commercially available uniform end product of a publicly funded breeding program that has been sufficiently tested to demonstrate improved characteristics and stable performance.
The bill also amends the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 to establish a public cultivar research activities coordinator within USDA to coordinate research activities relating to the breeding of public cultivars.