(1) The legislature finds that:
(a) agriculture is the leading industry in Montana, based on cash receipts, and that agricultural commodities are resources of the first magnitude in the economy of Montana residents;
(b) agricultural commodities are prime factors in the production of wealth and in the development and stabilization of property values and of activities and enterprises that form the bases and sources of important contributions by taxation to the public revenue; and
(c) Montana agricultural commodities enter a world market that is highly competitive in character.
(2) In order to protect and foster the health, prosperity, and general welfare of the people of Montana, it is declared to be the public policy of this state to encourage and promote intensive, scientific, and practical research into all phases of agricultural commodity culture, production, marketing, and use and into the development of markets for commodities grown or produced in Montana.