HN user
Something very similar to that has already happened - in (very often hand-weeded) rice, shattering appears to have evolved to de-domesticate the crop - making it essentially impossible for 'weedy' rice to be distinguished from the real thing - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130717132418.h...
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.
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.
Agreed! Another super cool 'innovation' I have only seen signs for in MN - http://www.dot.state.mn.us/zippermerge/ more coverage: http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2014/05/the-zipper-merge-...
Looking at Iowa, it is pretty cool to see how many bikers do ragbrai - the 2013 route is what connects Omaha and Des Moines, 2012 is to the north of that.