The idea that some crops are genetically engineered and thus "unnatural" while other, non GM crops are "natural" is a complete misnomer. There exists no such thing as a truly natural agricultural crop used by people today. In fact, all crops you eat, every single one, has, since it was first used by man, undergone a gradual process of genetic engineering as cultivation and agricultural sophistication increased.

Farmers throughout time would carefully breed their crops to produce the best yields in their fields. If one type of corn grew better in stony soil than another, than you can bet that farmers would use that crop over the more frail alternative. Breeding other types of corn together would result in a hardier crop, or a crop with different attributes. Witness how all corn today is either white or yellow. Corn 300 years ago was a myriad of different colors, we simply now cultivate the particular corn strain that has proven most beneficial to larger harvests and better health.

This process of selective cultivation is hardly natural. It is, in many instances, directly effecting the development and evolution of crops. In many cases, over successive generations, the actual DNA of the crops in question has changed as new strains and version of the crop evolved and were cultivated for their positive attributes. Genetic engineering as we understand it today is nothing more than a vastly accelerated version of this age old process in agriculture.

Genetic engineering identifies the traits that are beneficial to growing crops on a genetic level and causes them to either manifest more prominently, or, where they're not present, become present. This is done by combining the DNA of other corn crops that already do, with crops that have similar attributes (combining wheat with a type of grass that grows well in arid climate breeds a heartier wheat, for instance). This process can greatly increase the ability of crops to grow in harsh climates, in instances of drought or simply yield greater harvests. In some cases, crops can provide more nutrients by being modified to do so.

Genetic Modification may be "unnatural" in that it interferes with the process of natural selection but this is something that has been present, in slower, less efficient ways, within the agricultural world for centuries. Genetic Modification is simply taking it into the modern world and making it useful in a single generation, instead of ten.

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