Businesses will pay for studies that help businesses or had a profit incentive. When you hear the govt spent a large sum of money studying how ocelots react to opium or somelike that, people usually say that's a waste of money, rather than finding out why.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Like there was one Republican complaint about studying soybeans. Beans! Useless!

Yeah well guess what one of the biggest crops in the US is. We used to export soy to Asia.

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/23114-opinion-the-trump-administration-is-wrong-about-the-value-of-crop-research-labs-and-farmers-know-it