"When, if, the world market is socialized GM might make more sense - I have my doubts. In the mean time is trying to slow things down a bit all that bad?"
Nope, it's clearly the most prudent thing to do. There are many potentially life-saving and live-enhancing innovative technologies clamoring for scarce developmental capital. Why focus so much on THIS particular technology -- GM crops, which inherently pose the risk of uncontainable environmental damage through germ-line corruption -- at THIS particular time, since world markets are so glutted with food? Since GM technology clearly lends itself to abuse in the hands of profit-seeking organizations, why not simply focus right now, in the hypercapitalistic world of the 1990s, on developing other technologies that can benefit humankind?
Carl