Seeking justice, eating toxics: overlooked contaminants in urban community gardens

• Published in: Agriculture and human values Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 165 - 184
• Main Author: Malone, Melanie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agricultural Ethics; Brownfields; Community development; Contaminants; Contamination; Development Studies; Education; Effects; Environmental justice; Environmental protection; Environmental Sociology; Food; Food contamination; Food contamination & poisoning; Food deserts; Gardening; Gardens; Gardens & gardening; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Neighborhoods; Pesticides; Philosophy; Pollution abatement; Risk reduction; Science; Superfund; Sustainable Development; Urban areas; Urban environments; United States > US; Soil contaminants; Urban agriculture; Organic community garden; Environmental justice
• ISSN: 0889-048X; 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10236-8

Over the past several decades, urban community gardens have arisen in diverse and economically compromised neighborhoods across the U.S. as part of multiple environmental justice efforts. Urban community gardens have enabled users to mitigate the effects of many environmental injustices such as the impact of food deserts, nutrient poor food found at convenience stores, and pesticide laden grocery items. While these benefits have promulgated across the U.S., community gardens are also well known to be located in historically contaminated locations in urban landscapes. These landscapes include former brownfield sites, superfund sites, and other abandoned spaces of contamination. Although environmental justice efforts to reclaim healthy food in urban community gardens are commendable, the presence and effects of potentially harmful contaminants is often overlooked as gardens are established. Further, governmental organizations tasked with protecting human health, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, have not established any health standards for urban community gardens. This creates many challenges in determining what is safe in community gardens, and garden mangers and users are often unaware of how severe the impacts of contamination may be or how to mitigate its effects. In this study, I highlight the prevalence of harmful concentrations of contaminants in urban community gardens in and near Seattle, Washington that are managed with organic practices. I then present the challenges and barriers to gardening in contaminated spaces. Finally, I make recommendations to address contamination in gardens spaces, and call for better regulatory standards and other forms of support to mitigate risk to users.