The interest in and establishment of urban gardens and food forests has been growing in recent years. Food production in urban environments has its challenges, however, particularly regarding the safety of edible crops grown in environments that contain potential contaminants. While some studies exist on urban agriculture food safety for annual crops, the literature is limited on relative risks in urban food forests that include fruit-and nut-producing trees and shrubs. This review provides an overview of the potential capacity of woody species (trees and shrubs) to accumulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals (HMs), and metalloids considering the safety of food production in the urban environment. The general trends found in a review of existing literature indicate (a) a lower risk for woody species to accumulate HMs and PAHs compared with vegetables, and (b) less accumulation in the fruit of woody species compared with other plant parts in those same species. However, these trends are not always consistent, and the accumulation of contaminants depends on variety of factors such as the concentration of a given element in the environment, type of contaminant, type of species, and species variety. This study highlights the critical need for more research on the safety of growing edible fruits and nuts on trees and shrubs in urban environments that may contain contaminants.
Agroforestry practices offer a compelling addition to conventional agriculture as they provide a broad range of economic, ecological, and social benefits. Despite its recognized potential, broad on-the-ground adoption of U.S. agroforestry remains limited. Factors influencing agroforestry adoption and dissemination bottlenecks by actual practitioners are underexplored. While previous studies have focused mostly on landowner and farmer interests in agroforestry, without them necessarily being practitioners, this research details the perspective of those who have actively implemented some agroforestry practices. Early adopters of agroforestry represent an essential catalyst for future agroforestry diffusion. Better understanding of the factors influencing their decisions and reasons behind agroforestry practice adoption will help to support and promote wider adoption. This research study documents the what and why questions of early-stage agroforestry adoption and the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence both adoption and discontinuation decisions. Recommendations are offered to target and attract more agroforestry practitioners.
initiated a plan to formally designate areas for research and demonstration. In addition to providing important scientific information needed by the Forest Service to practice silviculture, Zon and Pinchot envisioned that these areas would serve as the "meeting grounds" of researchers and managers to help catalyze, develop, and maintain management-research partnerships for the agency. For more than a century, many of them have served these purposes admirably. However, questions remain about their contemporary and future usefulness. This paper reports on the perspectives of a four-member panel of Forest Service experts on the strengths and weaknesses of Experimental Forests and Ranges. In this panel, we also contemplated their future role for providing information and facilitating relationships between research scientists and managers.
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