[idontknowtech]

I'm all for gardening - there's something therapeutic about seeing a plant grow and evolve over time. You can see something tangibly change over time as a result of your work, something quite rare in today's world where we spend our time on computers producing ephemeral things like files.

That said, I'm completely opposed to urban food gardening (including chickens) because the land you're growing in is likely poisoned by years of urban pollution. Whatever you grow in those areas is going to bring that bad stuff along with it, which means your backyard tomatoes probably wouldn't pass FDA approval.

Chickens are even worse, because they'll eat whatever's on the ground and that stuff gets into the eggs. So while it looks great on Instagram, your backyard eggs are probably full of rubber, asphalt, gasoline, plastics, and all the other stuff that's wafted into your property over the years.

So anyway, by all means garden and have fun doing it, but if you haven't had your urban soil tested and verified as safe, don't eat anything that comes out of it.

[hosh]

That depends on the area and there are methods to mitigate that.

One group out in New Jersey that has a community garden in heavily polluted land uses clean straw bales as the grow medium. Those only last for two or three years. But you can grow stuff.

Regenerative and permaculture methods includes soil remediation techniques for rebuilding soil. For heavily polluted land, Dr John Todd has some remarkable methods that can remediate even places such as superfund sites, though that might not be something to DIY. Dr Todd also has a quick method for testing that doesn’t involve a lab; not comprehensive, but will get you the observation you need.

Finally, as you see from other articles including the current front page of HN — leafy veggies have been found to have tire additives. Micro plastics are found in rain amd in animals in the wild. Our planet has been so broadly polluted, and our industrial agriculture will not necessarily be safer. For those with an interest in stewardship, you have to start somewhere.

[psychlops]

Do you have any links that support these statements? Surely, some areas are contaminated, but claiming that urban land is "likely poisoned" and passes it on seems suspicious.

[coryrc]

https://theconversation.com/backyard-hens-eggs-contain-40-ti...

This claims it's not intolerable: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stop-freaking-out-...

[freeopinion]

Come to think of it, I've never had my chicken feed tested. Rather than test every sqaure meter of my backyard periodically and also have every bag of feed tested, it seems more practical to do constant sampling of the eggs. Can you recommend a lab for me? How can I get an FDA inspection of my tomato? Do you have any data on the failure rate of such inspections?

[anamexis]

I'm not doubting you, but do you know of any concrete analyses of contamination in vegetables and eggs?

[gattilorenz]

According to the government, home-produced eggs in the Netherlands are so contaminated from PFAS they are a potential health risk: https://english.nvwa.nl/documents/consumers/food/safety/docu...

Eggs from the supermarket don’t have the same problem

[idontknowtech]

I recall one from Sydney which tested backyard eggs and found that basically all of them were terrible. I don't have it saved, however.

[throwup238]

> That said, I'm completely opposed to urban food gardening (including chickens) because the land you're growing in is likely poisoned by years of urban pollution. Whatever you grow in those areas is going to bring that bad stuff along with it, which means your backyard tomatoes probably wouldn't pass FDA approval.

Very much this. Those who live in very rainy areas like the PNW know all too well about all the rain gardens and other suburban filtration needed to keep the water from turning disgusting from surface oil and particulates coming off roads, shingles, etc.

[freeopinion]

Not to mention the oil content of the dressing I pour onto my lettuce and tomato just before I eat.

Ok, bad joke. But I am reminded of the fellow who was cited for dumping his used motor oil along his fence line a week before the DOT did a chip and seal on the road next to the fence.

[dylan604]

Sometimes, that pollution can be beneficial. I knew of someone that lived in an area where there was once a battery factory. Their tomatoes--grown in the ground--where simply amazing. It turns out, their soil is pretty acidic due to that battery factory.

[idontknowtech]

I'd be terrified of what else the battery company put in the ground.

[dexwiz]

You can accomplish the same thing by adding dog poop to your compost.

[BuckYeah]

Don’t forget chickens eat bugs that eat things dosed in pesticides

[123yawaworht456]

it's a leisure activity for yuppies.

the amount of land and effort required to grow meaningful amount of calories is far beyond anything you can do in a city. if you own a parcel anywhere near any city in the western hemisphere, just selling it outright would yield more money than all the produce you could grow in ten lifetimes.

[amanaplanacanal]

I can’t buy good tomatoes in the grocery store, for any amount of money. I can grow them in my garden.