Testing and educating on urban soil lead: A case of Chicago community gardens

Witzling, Laura; Wander, Michelle M.; Phillips, Ellen

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2010.012.015

Cited by 54 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…(Concentrations of other heavy metals were highly correlated with lead levels.) Those averages were much lower than the mean value of 2180 ppm reported by Shinn et al 20 for 62 residential properties in a four-block area of Chicago, comparable to the mean value of 395 ppm reported by Kay et al 21 for 57 samples from city-owned land and higher than the mean value of 224 ppm reported by Witzling et al 22 for inground community garden plots in the city. The risk that lead-contaminated soil poses to the health of gardeners and their families is uncertain, with a wide range of maximum safe levels proposed in the literature 22 .…”

Section: Hypothesiscontrasting

confidence: 42%

Urban home gardens in the Global North: A mixed methods study of ethnic and migrant home gardens in Chicago, IL

Taylor

Lovell

2014

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

104

108

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In the United States, interest in urban farms and community gardens is flourishing, yet the urban home food garden (UHFG) and its contributions to urban systems have been overlooked and understudied. To begin to address this gap, we are conducting a mixed methods study of African American, Chinese-origin and Mexican-origin households with home gardens in Chicago, IL. Study methods include in-depth interviews, participant observation, ethnobotanical surveys and analysis of the chemical and physical properties of garden soils. As of this writing, findings indicate that home gardening has an array of beneficial effects, contributing to household food budgets and community food systems, the reproduction of cultural identity and urban biodiversity. The majority of informants in the study were internal or international migrants. For these individuals, gardening, culture-specific food plant assemblages and the foodways they support represent a continuation of cultural practices and traditional agroecological knowledge associated with their place of origin. The gardens of some migrant households also harbor urban agrobiodiversity with roots in the Global South. At the same time, gardens may have less salubrious effects on urban systems and populations. A lack of knowledge of safe gardening practices may expose vulnerable populations to environmental hazards such as soil contaminants. Gardeners in this study reported using synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, sometimes indiscriminately, and the repeated application of synthetic fertilizers and compost may contribute to the nutrient loading of urban stormwater runoff. These effects may be moderated by the relatively low bulk density and high porosity of garden soils due to tillage and the application of organic matter, which can be expected to enhance stormwater infiltration. While the UHFG's potential contributions to urban systems are significant, outreach and research are needed to help gardeners grow food safely and sustainably in ways that contribute to overall ecosystem health.

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Section: Hypothesiscontrasting

confidence: 42%

Urban home gardens in the Global North: A mixed methods study of ethnic and migrant home gardens in Chicago, IL

Taylor

Lovell

2014

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

104

108

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nonetheless, the mean value of Pb was relatively low compared to other cities (Table 4). A potential public health risk exists in soils with >1,000 mg kg −1 Pb (Whitzling et al, 2010), which makes them unsuitable for urban gardening (Beniston and Lal, 2012). This is also the upper guideline limit for Pb in Swiss soils (Swiss Federal Council, 1998), which was exceeded only once in this study.…”

Section: Heavy Metal Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 81%

A Gardener's Influence on Urban Soil Quality

Tresch

Moretti

Bayon

et al. 2018

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…Urban gardening is experiencing growing popularity in Europe and North America (Kessler, 2013;Leake et al, 2009;Saeumel et al, 2012;Witzling et al, 2011). In Copenhagen, gardening activities take place in well-established associations like school and allotments gardens, as well as new concepts such as rooftop gardening and gardening in movable containers are developed (Copenhagen Municipality, 2014a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%