Should Genetically Modified Food items can be trusted?

GM crops are based on the concepts of "Biotechnology" and "Tissue culture". Today, we can manually rearrange the genes to increase productivity and introduce desirable traits. This is called Transgenic.

There is no scientific consensus or agreement on whether the GM crops are safe or unsafe. However, what we all do agree upon is that once they are allowed, the process might be irreversible. 

Hence, the extreme caution in various countries such as India where people are primarily depended on subsistence agriculture. It would be prudent to say that GM food crops do have a future but a lot of research is yet to be done before they are given a green signal worldwide. GM non-food crops like cotton are already a hit in major parts of world including India.

Why GM Food Crops?

• World Population has already crossed 7 billion and is projected to cross 9 billion by 2050 growing at rate more than that of agricultural produce. People are dying of hunger in south Asian and sub-Saharan African countries. GM food crops, according to many, are not a luxury but a necessity as they increase the productivity manifold (bt cotton has doubled the yield in Maharashtra).
• Huge use of pesticide and insecticide resulting in land degradation. GM Crops are Pest resistance & Drought resistance (resists environment stress - heat, frost, drought, salty soil).
• Improved Nutritional Value. Crops can be genetically modified to contain additional nutrients that are lacking from the diets of many people in developing countries.
• It is a Rapid method of crop improvement (3-4 years). Conventional methods based on selection and hybridization take at least a decade or even more to come up with improved varieties of wheat or rice (e.g. the HVY seed used in green revolution were developed after decades of effort).

Why not GM Food crops?

• GM foods have never been part of the human food chain. Allergic Reactions & Side-Effects are potential results in case of weak regulation.
• Although qualities such as drought & pest resistant are appreciated, GM crops require huge irrigation facilities (bt cotton). Also, bt seeds cost a lot more. Critics allege that GM crops were created not because they're more productive but because they're patent-able. Their economic value is oriented not towards helping subsistence farmers to feed themselves but toward feeding the already overfed rich.
• Increased nutritional value is has not been established scientifically.

All and All, GM food crops are treated differently in different countries. USA allows GM market and lets consumer to choose by putting in place a strong regulation. GM apples in the US have to be marked that way to inform consumers. This kind of regulatory mechanism in place is difficult in developing nations as the neither the enforcement is practicable nor the people are matured enough to differentiate.

In India, the Supreme Court-appointed panel recommended a ban on GM field trials and 10-year moratorium on GM Food Crops. However, government has more or less ignored that. GM crops are being analyzed on case to case basis.