DanielLC comments on Should I be afraid of GMOs? - Less Wrong
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Find me one plant that has been genetically modified enough to make it as different from its original version as corn is from maize.
In addition, genetic modification only changes specific genes. Selective breeding ends up with a lot of other changes. As such, selective breeding is more dangerous for a given modification.
That's technically true, but in practice the results of selective breeding have undergone "staged deployment" - populations/farmers with harmful variants would have been selected against. Modern GMO can reach a global population much more quickly, so harmful variants have the potential to cause more widespread harm.