It's about time they were challenged by scientists and not just big business. Vandalism is vandalism no matter what you may like to call it.
Somehow we have to find ways to feed an ever increasing population. We have always used genetic modification to increase yield and disease resistance. It's just that in the past we had to do it by cross fertilising and waiting to see if we had managed to produce the change we wanted. Now we just have a way of producing the changes more quickly.