Urban Soil Safety Policies: The Next Frontier for Mitigating Lead Exposures and Promoting Sustainable Food Production

Urban Farm DB summary

A 2022 review that collected and evaluated 43 soil-safety-related urban agriculture policies across 40 US cities. About half of these cities had at least one policy that recommended soil testing or provided a testing service, but only eight cities had any policy containing an actual requirement (on soil testing or on a specific growing practice). The authors also found notable inconsistencies between cities in what counts as an 'acceptable' level of lead in soil and in the actions recommended at each level. Because US Environmental Protection Agency guidance on soil lead was not written with urban agriculture in mind, the paper sets out the research needed to revise that guidance and offers recommendations for drafting or revising municipal soil safety policies. It documents a governance gap: responses to urban soil contamination are fragmented across jurisdictions and mostly non-binding.