I find it equally infuriating that any attempt to have a conversation about GMOs gets shut down with a blast of "they're perfectly safe to eat" and "what, you don't believe in science?"

GM is a tool. It is not inherently good or bad, it just is. The ethics of how you use a tool, especially a new tool, should absolutely be debated by an educated society. A semi truck is neither good nor bad, but if people were using them as daily commuter cars, that might be something society would want to think about.

Most of my family works in agriculture at least part-time. We also have numerous advanced degrees between us: Masters in Biological Engineering, Masters in Economics, Masters in Public Administration, BS in Applied Mathematics, BS in Agriculture Science, BS in Environmental Science, BS in Sociology (and that's just my immediate family, no grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, etc.). We spend a fair amount of money to minimize the impacts of our agriculture on the environment. We build surface water retention ponds to help filter out chemicals, we maintain a sizable acreage of natural areas to provide space for native plants and animals, and we constantly seek to use the least amount of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers necessary to keep our crops healthy.

Anytime we try to talk about GMO use, the potential dangers of indiscriminate and widespread chemical use (such as roundup), and the race to the bottom that is pricing out ecologically conscious farming practices as well as most family farms we get labeled as anti-science fanatics and barraged with many of the comments I'm seeing here. It's very frustrating to see an important conversation shut down because of shortsightedness and knee jerk reactions from people on both sides.