So that's how you spell sellout. I kid. But I've always thought the problem isn't so much the genetic engineering of crops, but how companies like Monsanto (our favorite GMO demon) end up with an extreme amount of control over the food supply. You don't have to look hard to find story after story of Monsanto driving out any farmers who don't buy their seed. Over 80% of the corn grown in the US is Monsanto seed and guess what, you can't save part of your harvest for seed for the following season, you have to go back and buy new seed every season. That level of control and lack of options is what concerns me.
50 years ago, GMO was literally a sci-fi dream that was our only realistic hope for feeding an ever-increasing world population. Unfortunately, yes, Monsanto (and a few others) have more or less ruined that dream. They've found ways (arguably at least) to feed the world and instead of sharing that technology, they seem intent on controlling the world's food supplies and that scares me much more than the GMOs themselves. I don't think anyone would want to deprive Monsanto of their due profits, but not at the cost of ransoming the global food supply.
Agreed, I think it's a similar story to pharmaceuticals. I don't care as much about patent wars when the only thing it affects is my smartphone. However, when people start to 'own' living organisms - that could sustain themselves without human intervention - I think we have gone too far. GM has huge potential to improve the lives and health of billions, but we have managed to create a system that only benefits a relative few.