RE: Wishing to have a discussion and learn true nature of GMO without rhetoric. Any takers?

Let's keep it simple! Without entering into long discussion on terminology. Humans are modifying organisms from millennia (yes also genetically). One thing is to breed wolves with more human-tolerant behavior to create the ancestor of dogs, or wild cows (urook-like) to create and select a new species showing higher milk production, but inserting a bacterial gene involved in pesticide resistance into a plant or a jellyfish gene in a tomato is something different. At least different in technology used (try to convince a tomato to have sex with a jellyfish), not in principle that is basically the same: creating something new that in natural condition would have had very little chances to originate and colonize some niches in this planet. So the problem is that technology is allowing us to break any reasonable limit in terms of possibilities but also time. And time can be critical, because we are not able to understand a technology that in some cases became obsolete before it is even understood by large parte of the the people, or better by non-experts. Lately, CRISP technology is emerging as a new method of genetic manipulation that is revolutionizing the way in which we changed DNA so far. Without entering in details, this innovation could also be relatively cheap, but it will not change the fact that the organisms genetically modified with this technology will be patented anyway. However, we should not look at Biotech company monsters, we can ask farmers for confirmation, but probably they pay a lot of money for buying normal seeds (I do not think they are free). So, probably the economic issue is not highly relevant here. Two other factors are the main sources of concerns: safety and biodiversity threat.
Inserting a new organism in an environment where it was not originally present or where it went extinct, can have catastrophic consequences (too many examples), but in some cases also positive effect (take a look at this:

In some cases, the genetically modified organisms comes with a sterile-obliged option. Probably it will not work( see Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs were supposed to be all females). Third, the fact that GM plants can be rendered more resistant towards pesticide will allow also for a more indiscriminate use of such substances with deleterious effect on insects and possibly other animals. FInally, the human health issue... very tough topic! I would like to make just a consideration. We have used for decades some toxic or cancerogenic compound before realizing it (see DDT, ethernit, teflon, CFC, and the list can be very long). So if somebody is telling me GM organisms are safe for human consumption, it just make me laugh a lot. But I could accept that they could be safe or it could be important to test them properly. And it is also important to avoid generalization a tomato with a gene for long-lasting life could be safe, this is not telling me anything about the safety of a banana were it was inserted a gene from a spider...

Inserting a new organism in an environment where it was not originally present or where it went extinct, can have catastrophic consequences (too many examples), but in some cases also positive effect (take a look at this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q). In some cases, the genetically modified organisms comes with a sterile-obliged option. Probably it will not work( see Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs were supposed to be all females). Third, the fact that GM plants can be rendered more resistant towards pesticide will allow also for a more indiscriminate use of such substances with deleterious effect on insects and possibly other animals. FInally, the human health issue... very tough topic! I would like to make just a consideration. We have used for decades some toxic or cancerogenic compound before realizing it (see DDT, ethernit, teflon, CFC, and the list can be very long). So if somebody is telling me GM organisms are safe for human consumption, it just make me laugh a lot. But I could accept that they could be safe or it could be important to test them properly. And it is also important to avoid generalization a tomato with a gene for long-lasting life could be safe, this is not telling me anything about the safety of a banana were it was inserted a gene from a spider...