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[Panthro]

I work in genetics, and I'm not worried about this too much.

The problem is more with intensive farming methods and reductions in biodiversity from that.

The drops in biodiversity in farmed crops have been occurring for many years, and this can mean that a particular disease affecting a crop could cripple food production. Crippled food production in turn leads to rationing or starvation in extreme cases, or at least inflated food prices.

As for the need for more pesticides, some of these GM crops are being grown with the intention to use far less pesticides and artificial fertilizers. The environmental and public health impacts have the possibility of being reduced.

Of course, companies like Monsanto are far from trustworthy, so I wouldn't like to claim that GM foods are completely safe without more research (although there has been some research, the trouble is we need some large scale research, which means fields of GM crops being grown...).

Just because the companies that want to use such things are not trustworthy, doesn't mean you should automatically trust those in opposition. We must all be careful to weigh up the risks carefully, and make an informed choice whether we want GM foods or not.