Matt Squires carried a tray of plants to the corner of a two-acre plot outside DuPont Pioneer’s Beaver Creek research building in Johnston and began sinking the seedlings into the ground, following a carefully designed plan outlined by a colleague.

But Squires, a senior research associate, wasn’t planting the company’s latest corn or soybean varieties designed to withstand insects, diseases or drought.

Instead, Squires and about 40 other Pioneer ...