Very interesting article. I wonder about the second and third order effects of genetic engineering, but I would say I’m optimistic about a tree that’s engineered to survive a blight, whereas engineering crops so they can survive being soaked in cancer-causing poison that kills everything else in the field —- and then eating them —- seems far more concerning.
On the other hand, engineering corn to produce Bt toxin, which is harmless to mammals, such that less broad-spectrum insecticide must be applied to get the crop to harvest, seems like a straightforward win. The toxin only affects insects which actually eat the corn, so it shouldn't be contributing to the alarming crash in insect population we've been seeing worldwide.
I think that's a compelling argument, but I find I'm still cautious about anything that we're eating, especially as a staple good. It's just extremely difficult to _know_ what the long-term effects of any significant change in diet will be for any creature, and in particular for us humans it's hard to be an outside observer since by definition we don't live long enough to observe multiple generations. There have been a lot of things that science thought were "harmless" or even "good for us" in the 20th century which we later realized was quite harmful. I see no reason to think that we've passed some magic threshold where we no longer make such mistakes.