I remember when I first wanted to grow and save seed from corn, I was hesitant to do so because of possible contamination from GMO. Lots of writing indicates it might not be possible at all because of the giant fields of GMO corn and the fact that corn pollen is windblown. While it certainly is an issue to always be aware of, I've come to realize that with some effort it is possible to protect your corn from GMO.
The first step if it's possible for you, is location. Most folks out west, along the coast or in the mountains have an advantage as the giant factory fields are east and upwind of there. My location in Indiana is less ideal in that respect but still, nicely isolated from the giant fields even in my own state. I'm in the hilly wooded region along the Ohio River and miles away from the large fields north and west of me. I'm surrounded by a four-thousand-acre state owned hunting preserve and many thousands of more acres of wooded hills.
Second, or maybe tied for first is being careful in sourcing seed. Reputable sources such as Baker Creek, Southern Exposure and others are careful to offer only non-contaminated seed. Many others will advertise their seed as non-GMO but unless they detail their procedures for guaranteeing that, I like to follow it up with communication, asking what those procedures are. Are they careful about their growers? Do they do routine genetic testing?
Third and extremely effective is timing. That is planting you corn so that it flowers either before or after any other corn in your neighborhood. Now of
course that is a little tricky. You need to know what other corn might be growing around you and have a general idea of its maturity time and how that compares to the corn you're growing. Unless the possible source of contamination is a big patch and or right next-door, chances are fairly low anyway but if you time it, so they don't flower at the same time, you eliminate the danger entirety.
I take the timing aspect a bit further by selecting and breeding my corn for short maturity and cold tolerance. This allows me to plant my corn well before the big fields, even though they are many miles away. My corn is up a few inches before the factory fields are even planted. Adding in the short maturity allows me to have ears on the way to maturing seed before the factory fields have even bloomed. On the opposite end, for example if a weather event ruins my early crop, I can replant and have mine bloom well after theirs is done.
I guess I'm a little extra paranoid because I have on occasion even resorted to laboratory testing. You want to avoid that if you can because it's not cheap. They need a minimum of 100 kernels and while you can send 100 from your whole crop that isn't really a good test. For a good test, 100 kernels from each individual ear are needed. I have only done that a few times when I had acquired a particularly interesting ear without knowing for sure of its origin.
A cheat on testing is to do it yourself with a little bit of the wicked chemical. Now I would not actually, myself, spend one thin penny on acquiring that stuff but I know people who do. On one occasion I was given a pretty much empty spray bottle of it to use for a test I wanted to do. There wasn't even
enough in it to spray, I had to add some
water. I had never seen it up close in action before and was kind of shocked at what it did and more so at how fast it did it. Wicked is barely an adequate descriptor for this stuff. The photo below is of what were some perfectly healthy and beautiful corn starts approximately 1/2 hour after a light spraying of the diluted, home use version. *Note, there are other GMO types that the spray test would not reveal.
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