The Bauta Initiative has been running a number of different plant breeding programs to develop new varieties of organic wheat, oats, and potatoes. Our populations/breeding lines are developed by the University of Manitoba (for wheat/oats) and Duane Falk (former plant breeder at the UofG developing potatoes in Hillsburgh, ON).
The way it works is farmers select from the list of populations we have available, we send out the material in the Spring, and farmers make selections over the course of the season. They keep the seed/planting stock to replant for next year, and send a sample back to the U of M for evaluation. All of the material is collectively owned by the farmers and the University of Manitoba with equal say on how it gets bred, exchanged, and distributed.
For folks that are interested in developing these kinds of crops, please get in touch with me at adey@usc-canada.org and I would be happy to pass on more information about the program. You can also check out more info about the program here.