Lead in Urban Gardens

[maxx]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/ga...rssnyt&emc=rss
Since 2003, hazardous amounts of lead have been documented in backyard and community gardens in New York as well as in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Washington. Lead-laden soil has been found not only in inner city neighborhoods but also suburban areas.

[Detroitnerd]

Mainstream media -- and their big business backers -- do not like you growing your own food. They will do anything they can to scare you off it. Notice how they hide the actual, practical advice in the second page, so the laziest readers will simply conclude that home gardens are dangerous.

They could have just as easily written a story called, "Clever gardeners find ways to deal with lead in their soil." But, nope, big food™ wouldn't like that.

[skyl4rk]

Does lead in the soil get into plants?

[JJD]

Does lead in the soil get into plants?

Yes. We had the same problem at our old place, tested the soil and the lead content was through the roof. So we build raised beds, brought in new soil and presto, the garden is good to go.

[Stosh]

Mainstream media -- and their big business backers -- do not like you growing your own food. They will do anything they can to scare you off it. Notice how they hide the actual, practical advice in the second page, so the laziest readers will simply conclude that home gardens are dangerous.

They could have just as easily written a story called, "Clever gardeners find ways to deal with lead in their soil." But, nope, big food™ wouldn't like that.

There are, as they say, ways to remediate, such as spinach growing over time. Or, as I have heard, sunflowers. It's unclear as to how much time or growing seasons it takes to remove the lead. I guess the only way to be sure is to test and retest. If it were up to me, I would, anyway.

[DetroitPlanner]

Issues can be overcome with mitigation.

Some places are experimenting with vertical gardens. Imagine the S side of a large glass auto factory being used as a hot house. This way you repurpose the building and are able to grow things in it.

Why not? If you drive a short distance to Leamington you will see that everything is grown in greenhouses.

[English]

Yes. We had the same problem at our old place, tested the soil and the lead content was through the roof. So we build raised beds, brought in new soil and presto, the garden is good to go.

This is exactly what my folks did in the D, and what my church is doing up in the Ann Arbor area. When I had my first independent garden, the first thing my Grandma said was "don't use the soil that's there -- bring your own." So everything's in pots, planters, and raised beds.

I don't know... I thought this was common knowledge. Who's just planting in whatever soil is on an abandoned lot without testing it?

[Stosh]

This is exactly what my folks did in the D, and what my church is doing up in the Ann Arbor area. When I had my first independent garden, the first thing my Grandma said was "don't use the soil that's there -- bring your own." So everything's in pots, planters, and raised beds.

I don't know... I thought this was common knowledge. Who's just planting in whatever soil is on an abandoned lot without testing it?

Everywhere. Look around.

[Blueidone]

Anyone involved with the Greening of Detroit or the Agricultural Network gets free soil testing, I believe. Most of the groups use raised beds, like Georgia Street does. If they can, they remediate the soil, but raised beds is usually a cheaper alternative.

[n7hn]

so, from the info Im seeing here, a fast food company could argue that the real fattening of Urban America is really just the added weight of accumulated lead from home grown veggies.

Bad, evil urban gardeners .... eat more fried synthetic chicken.

[English]

Everywhere. Look around.

Hmm. I guess I just assumed that most of the main community gardens are transporting in their own topsoil and compost. If they aren't, it's a problem.

[Stosh]

Hmm. I guess I just assumed that most of the main community gardens are transporting in their own topsoil and compost. If they aren't, it's a problem.

That cost's money that a lot of people don't have enough of now, sadly. The ones that are planting in the ground are putting themselves at some risk. I'm not talking about the well publicized gardens, I speak of your average person that will plant just to supply their family with a bit more food by using the vacant lot adjacent to their house.

I think that some of the community gardens would be doing the community a service by promoting safe gardening techniques, and possibly directing people how to remediate these problems. I'd like to see how I could find a lead test kit for my own back yard.

[fryar]

I don't know... I thought this was common knowledge.

This would never have occurred to me.

I liked the final thought in that article:

“You can’t assume what you buy at the grocery store is any safer.”

He's probably right.

How does one go about disposing of one's hazardous, lead-laden spinach as toxic waste?

[gazhekwe]

There are a couple of those alphabet things we are all lousy with around here as well, PBBs and PCBs. One is that fire retardant they accidentally fed to the poor cows in the 70s, and the other has to do with electrical transformers. Do they test for those? Are they picked up by plants?

It seems most plants don't pick up heavy metals, and the biggest danger is contact with the soil, per this article and others I have read:

Luckily, most vegetable and fruit crops don’t absorb high levels of lead into themselves even if planted in areas with lead contamination. “Each plant has various degrees of absorbance,” says Jouraeva. “But lead is usually not transmitted through shoots.” The most danger with regard to lead poisoning comes instead through direct ingestion of contaminated soil. This usually happens when children play in toxic soil and get it into their mouths or when people eat contaminated soil found on the exterior of unwashed produce.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/hea...#ixzz11rfE0LIZ

[woodwardboy]

Wouldnt worry about the heavy metals in Detroits soils. Go anywhere in Europe. If you dig you will find thousands of years of heavy metals.
No one complains that their French wine or cheese tastes like lead