First and foremost, it's important that we keep research funded publicly rather than privately, so that it is true research, non-biased research, and research that farmers can take back to their operations and implement into their own businesses and operations, and so that they can be the benefactors of that research and not a privately funded or corporately funded research scheme, where the real profits from that research are put into the hands of the corporations and away from the primary producers.
On April 24th, 2007. See this statement in context.