Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

The mechanization was destroying their livelihoods, with no viable alternatives. The owners reaped benefits, and the people they had formerly depended on were either tossed away or were still employed but saw how things were going. The only safety net was begging for alms, or having to start from scratch -- if they could find someone who'd take on a middle-aged apprentice. Smashing the machines wasn't the best option, but all the good options were out of their reach.

The Luddites are better understood as a labor issue than as cartoon anti-technology fanatics. Their radicalization was a warning about what can happen when there is a failure to address consequences for displaced workers.

As for GMO, it's not just the technology: the legal framework governing its usage and regulation is amply concerned with the needs and interests of the companies and patent-holders, and considerably less so for everyone else: consumers and simple bystanders. And the companies & patent-holders are pushing for even further deregulation.

So a substantial part of the "hysteria" about GMOs is about the legal aspects and self-interest of promoters. And another portion simply knows its history, remembers PR campaigns about "better living through <fill in the blank>" and wants a regulatory infrastructure in place to avoid new equivalents of the myriad industrial accidents and disasters that were the result of lax or nonexistent concerns for safety.

If you're really worried about Luddites, work against the other factors that so warp the situation that the genuine fringe of zealots can sound reasonable.