I don't see why we shouldn't aim to stay ahead in this area as well. American farmers tripled productivity over the last 50 years and federal research was a big reason why. That research pays back about $20 for every dollar spent. But we basically stopped growing it. Funding is sitting around 1960s levels while China’s public ag research passed ours around 2008 and is now more than double what we spend. They definitely need that, and necessity is the mother of invention. The country that funds the next wave of farm tech will likely end up owning it and selling it back to everyone else. We already have tools for this. AgARDA for the high risk stuff private companies won’t touch (it’s only gotten about $4 million since 2018). Think of it as something like DARPA but for agriculture. We also have FFAR that brings in $1.40 of private money for every federal dollar. None of these need to be invented. They’re just a bit underfunded.