Genetic mutation (modification, natural selection, breeding, etc) has been going on for many many years in nature - plants are an easy way to appreciate this with their many varieties, colors, and shapes. Naturally occurring plant variants are often called "sports" 
.
Just to add two more cents to processing out the GM from a GMO. A GMO has two things that differ from it's non-GMO counterpart - a new gene (which may be from a totally different organism or a gene that has been changed and put back into it's genome) and the product of that gene which is usually a protein. A protein is not an oil so when oil is extracted from a source, say soybeans, the oil is separated from the proteins, waxes, DNA, RNA, etc. I too think that it's not ethical to say that a product is GMO free if it's source was GMO. But a purified oil should be just that - oil - and it shouldn't contain protein or DNA (no matter the source).
Maybe folks would be more open to trees that are modified to absorb carbon dioxide from the air - functional but not a food source?
. Just to add two more cents to processing out the GM from a GMO. A GMO has two things that differ from it's non-GMO counterpart - a new gene (which may be from a totally different organism or a gene that has been changed and put back into it's genome) and the product of that gene which is usually a protein. A protein is not an oil so when oil is extracted from a source, say soybeans, the oil is separated from the proteins, waxes, DNA, RNA, etc. I too think that it's not ethical to say that a product is GMO free if it's source was GMO. But a purified oil should be just that - oil - and it shouldn't contain protein or DNA (no matter the source).
Maybe folks would be more open to trees that are modified to absorb carbon dioxide from the air - functional but not a food source?
