Mixing GMOs with water fluaridation and vaccination hysteria shows you have no idea what the problems is about GMOs.
Plant scientist here. It absolutely is.
The main objection to GMOs isn't that they kill humans directly.
You're lying, You're not just ignorant, you're actively lying right now. Google the term 'GMO' and you will find tons of such claims very quickly. Hell, Jeffery Smith, one of the most notable anti-GMO activists, claims that GMOs promote AIDS. Acting as if the opposition is not claiming all sorts of bogus health scares is patently deceptive.
The IP problems surounding GMOs should be enough for slashdot types to reject them.
What IP problems? The fact that they receive a patent for a certain amount of years? You know, exactly like conventionally bred crops which have no such controversy. Yes, plenty of conventionally bred crops are patented so I guess you oppose conventional breeding too, otherwise you are being pretty selective in your logic. Patents that expire, like Monsanto's first GE soybean patent does in a few months? Or are you referring to the often claimed but completely false myth that Monsanto goes around suing small farmers if they get cross pollinated by GE pollen? Because if so, you don't have a leg to stand on. So tell me, what exactly is wrong with the IP issues surrounding GE crops, and what is your proposed fair alternative?
Also most GMOs are simply more resistent to pesticides. So more GMOs => more poison in food production.
This right here is my big problem with the anti-GMO thing. You drop people who know bugger all about agriculture into a topic they don't understand and you get these sorts of misconceptions. Yes, some GE crops are resistant to certain herbicides (the other main type which you conveniently neglected to mention is insect resistant ones which require less insecticides). Sounds bad, I agree, but only because you have been dropped in the middle of a story you haven't been following from the beginning. Okay, you use more of one type of herbicide, like glyphosate or glufosinate, but you can use better weed management practices (like no till farming, which conserves soil nutrients and reduces runoff problems) and you use less of harsher herbicides like atrazine. I'd call that a win. Do you have abetter weed management solution?
Another argument is, that GMOs have genes inserted that no plant ever could acquire naturally. So we simply have no idea what in the long term will happen with these GMO strains. Most probably nothing, but when the entire food production is at stake, I would be carful.
An appeal to nature followed by an appeal to ignorance. I hope that's all I need to say about that. You could just as easily make the same claim about vaccines, wifi, fluoride, or damn near anything, and be just as wrong and for the same reasons. Also, you neglect to mention the very careful regulations these things already go through. How about you provide a good reason to suspect GE crops of being potentially intrinsically dangerous, rather than just saying that because I can't all-knowingly prove a negative that your point therefore has merit.
I hope I've demonstrated why the anti-GMO nonsense is exactly like the anti-vaccine nonsense.