There are indirect arguments that are pretty strong.

Patented organisms let their owners extract economic rent. This covers nearly all GMO and many hybrids.

Monoculture, which you'll get when the whole industry comes to rely on a particular GMO, invites disaster. The first pest organism to defeat the GMO wipes out the entire industry.

Despite the above, I'd love to see a food company brazenly advertise products that are 100% GMO. It would be funny and might even sell really well.

-You can still grow your own non-gmo crops. It is ridiculous you're on the hook for IP infringement for gmo seeds blowing into your field, but that's a legal issue, not inherent to the concept of GMOs.

-There's no reason genetic variety can't be introduced on purpose, and pest resistance is part of what GMOs select for.

> You can still grow your own non-gmo crops.

And go bankrupt, because you're competing against GMO crops. Just like there are damn few transport companies these days using horse-drawn carriages.

I was thinking more along the lines of a home garden. Someone else in the thread claims GMO tastes worse, in which case non-GMO brands would stick around as more expensive options anyway.

> but that's a legal issue, not inherent to the concept of GMOs.

So, not an issue in theory, but in practice.

> It is ridiculous you're on the hook for IP infringement for gmo seeds blowing into your field

Incidentally, this isn't something that has ever been a real issue.

One farmer claimed it was, but it was pretty conclusively proven that he lied.

I just swap out “gmo” for “monoculture” and it makes much more sense for resistance to the food.

Among other things, industrial produce is noticeably lower quality than farmers market produce, cf tomatoes. The whole ecosystem benefits enormously from variety in produce.

How do you interpret peoples’ fear of the food?

If non-gmo produce tastes so much better then people will buy it and farmers will still grow it, but cheaply available produce is a clear win for everyone. And as I said in the other comment, you can have GMO without monocultures if the need arises.

The fear of eating it is all baseless fearmongering by the likes of homeopaths and crystal healers.

I largely agree. On specific crops this is a particularly worrying concern—see eg foreign crops. These are largely monoculture and are particularly vulnerable to eg disease. However, I see this as a lost battle.

They'll learn the lesson to introduce more variance after the first big incident, if it happens.

What makes you think the industry will survive the first?