Genetically modified organisms are seen by many as the avatar of the End. Terrible evils will be unleashed upon the human race because genes are spliced and foods are made more productive, more nutritious, more technologically supercharged for human consumption. In New Zealand, the Greens have long campaigned that it must be outlawed with a capital "O". As it stands, there is a fair old sequence of hurdles to jump before genetic modification is deemed kosher.
The historical reality is somewhat different. Most food that we consume has been genetically modified in one way, shape, or form. Take the carrot.
We believe that carrots should be woody and unpalatable and horrid to eat 
Wikipedia provides a brief history of the carrot's genetic modification:
