Food safety considerations of urban agroforestry systems grown in contaminated environments

Abstract

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.

Home Gardening and Food Security Concerns during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Pulighe and Lupia [37] noted that COVID-19 exposed the weaknesses of food systems in large cities, which should be counteracted with developments in urban agriculture and the inclusion of edible green infrastructures into cities. Romanova and Lovell [38] recognized the contributions of urban gardens towards stormwater mitigation and food security, while at the same time warned about potential food health and safety risks of urban landscapes used for edibles. Hume et al [39] calculated the potentials of urban gardening in Adelaide, Australia, and concluded that self-sufficiency through backyard vegetable production is plausible.…”

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture as a Tool for Food Security and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: The Case of Mestre

“…Pollution could be one of the major problems for the safety of UPA production. However, there are several techniques and tricks to reduce it and make healthy food, which must be chosen on a case-by-case basis after a pollution assessment [64]. Notwithstanding these limitations, we believe that the methodology and the study developed can be easily transferred to other contexts for analyzing other cities and their UPA sustainability, to suggest food policy orientations, and to integrate food considerations in urban planning.…”

Small‐scale silvopasture: Addressing urban and peri‐urban livestock challenges in the United States with agroforestry practices

“…Both the phytoavailablility and bioaccumulation in food products are dependent on several different factors including soil pH, redox potential, soil clay content and soil cation exchange capacity, organic matter, aging of added elements, nature and quantity of elements, and details of the soil–plant interface such as the impact of the rhizosphere microflora and levels of root exudates (Antoniadis et al., 2017). Several papers and reviews have focused on the issue of bioaccumulation of metals in vegetables and other products (Abdullahi et al., 2021; Romanova & Lovell, 2021). Some show little plant uptake and bioaccumulation in several vegetable and agroforestry tree species.…”