Yes, I have only learned about all that like a couple of years after reading books like "Whole Earth Discipline".
Large part of opposition to GMO originates from simple ignorance - people don't realize how plants and animals they've been eating for decades were engineered - now, 50 years ago or 5000 years ago.
None of the plants we eat are growing out there in the wild, the whole "natural" and "organic" thing is 100% marketing scam.
Organic-certified farming lost me when I read in their certification requirements that you cannot use most synthetic pesticides because they are "unnatural", but you can use CuSO4 (!) which is "natural".
I'm all for Fair Trade on the other hand, which covers part of what you mentioned without this pseudo-scientific bias.
@kravietz
> the whole "natural" and "organic" thing is 100% marketing scam.
That's really not the case. I mean "natural" yes. But organic certification means the grower has gone to a lot of effort to make sure their produce does not rely on unsustainable inputs, and that their growing methods improve the fertility of the soil, rather than mining and destroying it.
There's also a big difference between open pollination seeds, where growers can save and share seed, and sterile hybrids.
@feld