> The goal of public university plant breeding programs is to maximize benefit to the public, rather than profit

I am not sure that is true. For example:

Commercialization and the Scientific Research Process: The Example of Plant Breeding

The nature of scientific research has changed rapidly in recent years. Applied biological research, such as plant breeding, has changed more in the past 15 years than at any time since the discovery of genetics. 

The tremendous impact of commercialization on plant breeding research can be traced to the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 that led to a rapid increase in the patents granted to U.S. colleges and universities. 

A faculty panel determined recently that Cornell University could better serve its internal and external responsibilities by placing a greater emphasis on the development and commercialization of university inventions.

While such a change in emphasis would eventually involve many aspects of the university, a starting place was thought to be an increase in incentives for activities leading to and promoting commercialization. 

Coffman, W. R., Lesser, W. H., & McCouch, S. R. (2003). Commercialization and the scientific research process: The example of plant breeding. Science and the University.

¶

Before you dismiss Cornell as a private University, I would mention that it has both private and public sectors:

> Of its seven undergraduate colleges, three are state-supported statutory or contract colleges through the State University of New York (SUNY) system, including its agricultural and human ecology colleges. As a land grant college, Cornell operates a cooperative extension outreach program in every county of New York and receives annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions 

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