Surely, it's a matter of informed choice. Personally, I'm not bothered either way, but I respect other people's right to choose.

Another problem with genetic modification is that it can't be undone. A major objection that I've heard from farmers is that GM crops tend to "take over" and contaminate surrounding crops which, in some cases are "organic" and once contaminated they cannot be sold as such. "Organic" doesn't mean much to me, since all life forms that we commonly come in contact with here on Earth are organic. But if someone wants to eat food grown in any particular way, they should have that right to know exactly what they are eating and how it was produced.

I'm thinking of the scandal over mechanically recovered "meat", back at the time when the CJD/BSE scares were going around. It still hasn't been determined whether BSE was initially caused by feeding MRM to cattle.

It's also about crop diversity. If we genetically modify crops to the point where we are only growing a couple of varieties and the rest have been "cultivated out" of existence, we are putting ourselves at risk of famine if a new bacteria or virus turns up that has adapted to attack the new strains - it could decimate them and we would have no fall back position.

And finally, it's about patents. If someone can patent the staple foods that we eat, they have us all by the short and curlies.

John