Many Australians like to grow vegetables and fruits in their backyard.
Often people of Indian background like to grow coriander, mint, curry leaves and chilies in their garden. The reasons are manifold. Given the large space Australian backyards offer and the fact that they go straight from your garden to the table, monetary saving at the green grocers and avoiding exposure to pesticide.
New research shows home growers may unknowingly be feeding their families contaminated produce.
The joint study by Macquarie University and RMIT University suggests one in five backyard vegetable patches is contaminated with toxic levels of lead.
RMIT associate professor Suzie Reichman explains, "The key findings are that we found 20 per cent of vegetable gardens in Melbourne have lead above the health-investigation levels and 8 per cent of the community gardens that we sampled also had lead above the health-investigation levels."
Macquarie University environment professor Mark Taylor co-authored the report and is one of the founders of VegeSafe.
He says gardeners should not let the findings deter them from growing their own produce. He advises that people can carry on growing veges and fruit in their kitchen gardens but do it safely find out if the soil is clean, and does not contain any residues of lead petrol or lead paint.
Professor Taylor says VegeSafe is trying to get the message across to multicultural communities and the many migrant-community gardens across Australia.
Mr Manmohan Saxena is a keen vegetable and fruit gardener in Melbourne. He had tried growing veges and fruit in his backyard without much success.
Close-up of tomatoes on white background Source: Moodboard
He added, “I was not aware about high levels of lead in the soil, but now that I know, I’ll be more careful and would be happy to have my garden soil tested.
Dr Balwant Singh is a professor of Agriculture and Environment in the University of Sydney. He says, “There’s no cause for panic. Some of my students conducted a survey on parks and home gardens in Sydney’s Western suburbia and found the soil to contain slightly higher levels of lead. The toxicity of this lead can harm little children in particular.”
What’s the solution then we ask Dr Balwant Singh.
He replies ‘if you have doubts about your soil containing lead, it would be a good to top that soil up with good clean soil, because if we keep growing vegetables specially green leafy vegetables like spinach and Methi in the same soil and eat those veges regularly, it can be harmful for kids.”
