I'm all for science and research and generally improving our knowledge and understanding, I'm also all for applying this in new technologies and methods including the use of genetics.

However I do have a problem with GMOs for several reasons. A major problem IMO is that organisms and even genes can be patented and copyrighted. That's is not a sensible concept, you can't copyright breeding dogs with for instance a red tip on their tale, but if you locate the gene for it, you can seemingly patent that. Of course genetics makes it possible to take that gene from somewhere else if dogs don't have it in their gene pool, but basically what genetics are doing is copy/paste coding and should not be protected as IP, just like we shouldn't have software patents.

My other problem is that GMOs often are made for resistance to pesticides, and while that is great to ensure the harvest, the use of more and stronger pesticides is exactly what we shouldn't do, some pesticides are pretty harmless to humans, but those are not the ones GMOs are used to make crops tolerant against.

The third problem is that even if GMOs theoretically could actually be safer than traditional selection, because modifying specific genes theoretically makes it possible to have more accurate knowledge of the change it introduces, I'm not convinced either by regulation or that there is sufficient and qualified oversight or structure to safeguard against blunders that simply wouldn't be possible with normal breeding. Most likely something akin to letting rabbits lose in Australia. Less likely something akin to gut bacteria in ants, that alter the ants behavior so it is more likely to get eaten by ant predators.