So, while in think there are certainly fair criticisms to be made of allowing patents on plants, the paper you linked is kind of just low quality fear mongering. It’s heavy one scare tactics and light on facts. I wouldn’t let anything in this paper keep you up at night without verifying it through a more reputable source.

To try to answer your questions though;

1. I really don’t understand why you think it wouldn’t be. There are some sources recommending that boliological waste made up of the GMOs themselves be sterilized before leaving lab conditions but if you eat a GMO and it passes through your digestive track there will be few if any living GMO cells remaining. Particularly in the case of peppers, mammals’ digestive tracts will destroy pepper seeds. That’s why they’re spicy, it’s ironically a defense mechanism to keep us mammals from eating them.

2. At any rate, 1is kind of a moot point because the paper you linked clearly states that wild peppers were cross bred with commercial peppers. That’s very traditional plant breeding, no mention of GMOs. Given the blatant fear mongering in the rest of the paper, I’d be floored if they missed a chance to scare people about GMOs in these peppers. So unless the peppers you’re asking about are different from the ones in the paper, I’d say they’re definitely not GMOs. Also, I don’t believe there are any GMO peppers on the market at present.

3. The short version is this. A company, let’s say Pioneer seed, patents a breed of corn that has, let’s say increased stalk strength for windstorm prone areas. A farmer buys and plants those seeds, sells the resulting crop. The only difference from heirloom seeds is that the farmer is legally prohibited from using that crop as seed corn and selling that crop.

4. So in principle, there isn’t really an impact on society from patented seeds. In practice, some of the patent holders have been overly aggressive with there enforcement. IMHO, this is a patent enforcement issue not an issue with the parents themselves. I don’t know about Europe but I know that here in the US there is a problem with dubious patents being approved and enforced but again, that’s patents as a whole not just seed patents. At this point I’d be more worried about what happens without seed patents. Nobody is going develop seeds except universitys which (at least here in the US) are criminally underfunded. Effectively, our crop technology would stagnant without serious increases in public University funding which I’m a huge supporter of but sadly, can’t imagine happening in my lifetime.

I hope I’m not coming off as an asshole here. Just trying to answer your questions honestly.

I’m not sure.

IMHO, the cast iron wouldn’t be too bad maintenance wise once you got it well seasoned and learned how to use it but, that takes some time so it might be more fussing around than you’d like for the first several months. And even then, you’ll probably still want a non-stick around for some recipes. The stainless sounds like it might be what you’re looking but, I’m not well versed with that. The one time I tried it, the food stuck so bad that I never tried it again but, all the recommendations I’ve read about it since then make me think that was probably user error.

So the cleanup on enameled cast iron is super easy. Some manufacturers (LeCruset for sure, probably a few others) even bill them as dishwasher safe.

The two big problems for what you’re asking for are that they’re not going to hold up well to metal utensils and, they’re really not anything resembling non-stick. I always use mine for pan sauces because the burnt on bits really add something when you delglaze them into a sauce. As far as something delicate like fish or eggs, you’re gonna have a bad time.

I think they’re a great addition to almost any kitchen but, they’re far from a universal pan.

Don’t spread outdated information.
The only thing this does is intimidate people from using cast iron at all and that’s just a shame.

Yeah, I think this was my biggest issue when I started using cast iron. I never had much luck getting it actually clean without soap and it definitely showed in my cooking. I eventually got some better advice and started having much better results. Now my CI is my go to eggs every weekend and afterwards, I throw it in the dishpan with everything else. As long as you don’t soak it, you’re fine. I think the soaking thing is a big part of why a lot of manufacturers still recommend against soap and water. It’s easier to tell people to not use soap and water than it is to explain the nuance of “wet it, don’t soak it” and “gently wash, don’t scrub into oblivion”.

So funny story. The workhorse of my kitchen is a cheap-ass enamel Dutch oven that my wife impulse bought at a grocery store 4 or 5 years before we moved in together. After we got married, I decided to get her a LeCruset replacement for our anniversary the year that cheap one bit the dust. We’ve lived together ten years as of this summer and I still haven’t had to shell out for the Lecruset. We use that thing at least twice a week, maybe more in the winter months and this thing shows no signs of quitting. At this point we’re so attachted to it that when the enamel does go, I’ll probably drill holes in it and keep it as a flower pot.

Seconding the notes in enameled cast iron. I have some and I love it to death but it’s not great as general use, is nothing resembling non-stick and most importantly for OPs question, it’s fragile as glass (because it’s literally covered in glass). Metal utensils will lead to scratches and chipping of the enamel and once the enamel chips, it’s trash unless you want to risk having glass in your food.

I’m also curious about your carbon steel though. I was under the impression that carbon steel pans were nearly as fussy with seasoning as cast iron. Is that not the case?