I was just writing yesterday about soil contamination and possible problems with urban agriculture, and now here is a perfect example.  These plots were designated garden plots, and the contaminates were low in the soil.  I often imagine urban farmers in developing countries farming where ever there is free space- by the sides of roadways, river banks, vacant company lots, in between houses, or in ditches.  All of these places have high possibilities of chemically contaminated soils from runoff or dumping.  How great would it be if there were free soil testing services or a place that one could easily go to test your soil.  Do you know of anything like that?  Let me know…

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Linked by Michael Levenston of City Farmer News

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“The tests were performed as part of the health department’s analysis of soil samples from all of Montreal’s nearly 100 community gardens. Beausoleil said about 30 gardens city-wide are contaminated. However, only 11 gardens have been closed – nine of them last year. The other affected gardens will be made public this year by the boroughs in which they are located, Beausoleil said.

“We can tell you right now, there is no worry for your health as a result of eating vegetables from this soil,” Monique Beausoleil, a toxicologist with the department — She explained that most of the contaminants were found in soil lower than the roots that most typical vegetables grow, so their absorption rate was very low.”

Montréal Gazette article, April 1, 2008.

Links to official tests and reports.

Montréal’s community gardening program – description, 14 page PDF.