Is planting a veggie garden in CA this year idiotic?
I'm not so sure if I want an answer to this question but here goes... I just moved to a new home in the Sierra foothills that has a nice vegetable garden space. My wife has been dreaming of a veggie garden for years and now we finally have the opportunity but now we have this whole other issue to worry about and I'm afraid it's going to ruin everything.
My wife is of the mind that whatever radiation we're receiving over here is no big deal and just a drop in the bucket of pollution that already exists. She rationalizes that the produce you buy at the supermarket is just as, if not more, poisonous in various ways than whatever we'd grow in a garden under the current conditions. I'm more worried than her, however, I guess because I'm the one checking this board every day, reading the numbers and hearing all sorts of differing opinions about exactly how dangerous this radiation can be when consumed in food. I really don't want to have to scrap the idea of a garden and ruin everything but I'm having a really hard time believing that this problem is truly dismissible.
Well, we already bought our starter plants, tilled and fertilized the soil and now that the rain seems to have finally stopped, we're ready to plant. I read a few things on this board about amending the soil and/or removing the top few inches. I made a sort of half-hearted effort to a bit of that before this last unexpected rainstorm but now that it's rained heavily over all the soil again, I'm back at square one and really don't want to have to do it over again (I did it by hand). I'm at the point where I'm ready to say "screw it" and just plant the stuff in the soil as it is and hope for the best.
We're only trying a small number of plants: 9 tomato, 4 strawberry, 4 pepper and some carrot, lettuce and radish seeds. I don't expect to get many strawberries this summer with this first crop and probably just tiny ones at that. Strawberries seem to have the highest levels of radiation at this point, according to the BRAWM readings, so I was most concerned about those. Can anyone offer a sane, rational, non-hysterical view on how dangerous it would be to consume the fruit and veggies from this small garden over the summer? If we weren't growing these in the garden, we'd just be buying them at the market anyway which I don't assume would be any less contaminated.
I just don't know what to think about all this and it's led to many nasty fights with my wife. Is my concern warranted or should I just not worry, eat up and be happy? Is there ultimately anything that we as produce-consuming Californians can do do avoid this anyway? I don't want to live in fear but I also don't want to be unnecessarily stupid. It doesn't help that I'm on the hypochondriac side, so I have to question my neurotic concerns about this kind of stuff in general. Anyway, thanks for reading all this and I hope that whatever answers I receive will help ease the minds of others in this situation as well.
Minimizing Risk
At this point, I think it's all about minimizing risk. I agree with your wife about the garden food. Both your garden and farmland will contain radiation, so it's really no different on that. However, assuming you are growing organically, you'll eliminate the pesticides and herbicides.
I also think you want to remove some of the cesium because I believe there is enough from the rain to increase your cancer risk. Removing the top layer of soil is one thing you can do to lower your risk.
I would remove the first 1/4 to 1/2" of soil from your garden and send it to the landfill. I would get the top layer slightly wet to avoid dust when removing soil.
Yes, some of the cesium (which will stick around for your lifetime) may have seeped lower than this, but not that likely if you have clay soil, like much of CA.
We had the most contaminated rain around March 25th. (I'm in CA too, central coast.) So, most of the iodine will be gone by the time you harvest.
I suggest doing the top layer of soil removal this year, before planting. I estimate this will remove about half the risk and make the soil at levels low enough to not worry much about. After removing soil, I would give the ground a good watering to help the cesium disperse a bit (will limit the amount in the plants).
Anyway, this reflects what I did in my own garden.
Thanks for the advice.
Thanks for the advice. Problem is, I already mixed up the top layer of soil with lower layers of soil while tilling it. I dug down close to a foot deep and tried to mix it up. I'd read somewhere else that that would actually help. I guess that was dumb of me.
Other advice
Read this discussion on this site
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/3786
It gives some more specifics. If you want to add calcium to your soil naturally, add crushed eggshells - it also helps control snails and slugs.
Later Rains
As far as I can tell, based on overall lower levels of cesium in the air, the later rains (ones in April and May) shouldn't have anywhere near as much cesium in them as the ones at the end of March. (I did my 1/4" to 1/2" soil removal after the March rains, but didn't think it was worth the effort after the later rains.)
Oops
Bummer on that. It's still better to grow your own, considering the farms will have just as much radiation. And, if you dug a foot deep, the good news is that you've dispersed the cesium into a larger volume of dirt. So, less overall will get into the plants.
One thing you can do is fertilize with fertilizer that contains potassium. This will make more potassium available, so the plants will take up potassium (what they really want) instead of cesium.
OP here. Wow, so many
OP here. Wow, so many helpful comments. Thank you all so much. Thanks for the marital advice, too. ;)
So it sounds like the phytoremediation thing might not be appropriate for us since it's such a long-term process. We may not even be living here next year so this garden was more of a small trial thing just to get our feet wet and have fun growing and eating a small crop of vegs this summer. Perhaps I should have made that more clear in my original post. I'm hoping to learn a lot with this little experiment and apply the knowledge to a more serious long-term garden when we settle down at a place where we know we're going to be livng for a while.
So being that this is just a short term, one-season project, I'm just wondering how significant any fallout exposure would be, even if we didn't take any precautions. If I knew we'd be living here for years and establishing a more permanent garden, I'd be doing a lot of things differently. Btw, we're both in our 30s and in good health.
I'm going to try to see if I can at least find some clean pre-Fuk soil that wasn't stored outside and some high potassium fertilizer. Our soil also tested on the acidic side, so I need to add some amendments for that as well (although those take a long time to take effect, too). As for making sure we got "clean" plants to begin with, dang, I didn't think about that. I don't think I'll be buying any more plants, so we're stuck whatever we have, clean or not.
It's interesting, though, that none of the professional gardeners I talked to had any concern about fallout. In fact, they all kinda looked at me weird for even asking. That sort of reaction always leads me to believe I'm just being a hypochondriac freak, which I admittedly can be at times. I've cried wolf on a number of occasions about health issues (with embarrassing results) which is part of the reason why my wife has a hard time believing me when it comes to this stuff.
A couple other things...
Since this last heavy rainstorm (we even got some hail and a little snow here, too) was probably relatively clean compared to previous rain, would that new rain help further dilute the radionuclides that were deposited in the soil from before?
Survivor: Your geiger counter results are interesting and a bit disconcerting. Are you going to be regularly posting results on this forum? What does BRAWM make of your readings? I wish more people had equipment to test this stuff so we could get a more well-rounded picture of the levels we're dealing with.
Re: Sunflowers. I was actually planning to plant some sunflower seeds as well and didn't realize they soaked up so much bad stuff. So if I do grow sunflowers, it's reasonably certain the seeds will be toxic? That would be helpful to know since we were planning on eating them.
Plant Many Sunflowers This Year!
Here's a thought... When you buy sunflower seed packets, there are only a few seeds in them. So, you might try buying them from a health food store. Many have raw, unroasted sunflower seeds for sale. You might pay a couple of dollars for a pound of them!
No, you will not be able to eat the ones that you grow!
I'm not sure how long it
I'm not sure how long it takes sunflowers to grow and produce seeds but are you saying that whenever the next batch of seeds hit the health food stores, those will be grossly contaminated as well if they were grown in California? Anyone who eats them will basically be taking cesium pills?
This Summer's Sunflower Seed Crop
This summer's sunflower seed crop will, in all probability, contain Cesium. So, if the health food stores purchase seeds from this summer's crop, they will probably not be safe to eat.
The sunflower seeds in the health food stores are safe to eat now because they grew last summer!!!
sunflowers
Sunflowers that produce seeds take around 90 days. Since sunflowers are great collectors
of cesium from their roots and leaves the seeds will be radioactive. How much, testing can only
tell. IF THE SOIL HAS CESIUM IN IT THEN THE SEEDS WILL TOO. EVEN THE PLANT MATTER ITSELF
IS RADIOACTIVE SO KEEP THE LOVELY SUNFLOWERS OUTSIDE AND NOT SITTING IN A VASE ON
YOUR TABLE. From the literature sunflowers remove about 10% cesium a year. Important to
compost the sunflowers away from any growing area and plant more sunflowers on the pile each year.
Wear gloves for chemicals when removing the plants. You don't want the plant juices going into any
open cuts on your hands.
Sunflowers Remove 10% per Year??
Wouldn't the removal percentage depend upon the amount of cesium in the soil? Namely, less cesium...more percentage of removal?
Is that 10% calculated based upon heavily contaminated soil?
Sorry, but this just sounds
Sorry, but this just sounds insane to me. You're saying that in 3 months time, HEALTH food stores will essentially be selling cesium pills in the form of sunflower seeds that can't even be touched without gloves? What you say could be true but I'd like to at least hear another opinion on this. Either we're all being total freaks about this or we're all going to get cancer because there's no real way to avoid this if it's as bad as you and others say. How will we ever know what the true answer is?
No, not what I meant at all!
I meant, BUY the sunflower seeds in bulk from the health food store and PLANT them...rather than buying small packets of packaged seed!!! Raw, unroasted sunflower seeds in the shell will SPROUT & GROW just like the ones packaged for planting! Only it is much cheaper!
I have a gallon ziplock bag full of sunflower seeds that I grew last summer for feeding the birds. Only...I am going to plant some of them this year.
Using Sunflowers for Phytoremediation
Planting sunflowers in your yard/garden is for phytoremediation...removing Cesium from the soil. They draw up the Cesium, but you don't eat the sunflower seeds afterward! Compost the whole plant away from any garden areas.
No, I won't be eating any sunflower seeds this next year!
sunflower seeds
maybe the Brawm team can test sunflower seeds at the end of the season.
would be a great idea. our cooking oils come from seeds as well.
logically if the sunflower is used for remediation of radiated soils, the
next conclusion is that the seeds will have "some" radiation in them.
sounds insane but that is our new normal world around us. we have had
a lot of radiation fall out from nuclear testing depositing fall out all over
the midwest in the 50's and 60's. --prime corn and sunflower growing areas.
now we add more to the soil's load. Why do you think the EPA is not doing
any testing. It has been there all along and now there is more accumulation.
We are all not going to get cancer. Calm down. Your anxiety is a bigger health
threat to you. Look into ways to detoxify your body and keep the immune system
strong.
Japan Is Looking At The Same Thing
Obviously on a much larger scale.
Experiments to decontaminate soil to start:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_02.html
I live on an organic farm and have a few ideas.
First, I would suggest the following (it is what i am planning on doing if I plant this year, which I am still debating here on the East Coast):
1. If you only have a few plants (a dozen or few dozen) it is VERY EASY to simply dig VERY big holes and fill them with clean potting soil or other soil packaged before 3-11-11 before you plant your plants in the ground. Removing as much of the topsoil which is nearby will maybe help some but just using totally clean soil in a big deep hole will pretty much eliminate a HUGE amount of the cesium absorption.
2. Fresh rains and air are now, according to the BRAWM tests, pretty damn clean so don't worry about new rains UNLESS there is a blast or new detections in the air or rain (and then cover your plants when it rains. Fresh clean rain will wash cesium down into the soil nearby, but you COULD also put in plastic barriers around your plants under the ground so the roots do not grow out to the cesium areas. Then companion plant the pigween in the nearby areas with addd potasium maybe (whatever is recommended).
3. Radiocesium apparently only really sinks or gets abosrbed into the soil for a foot or two deep at the most (depending on the type of soil) I have read, and is likely at this point only in the top 6-12 inches, so If when you plant you dig down a foot or so for each plant and fill with clean soil, that should work and with a plastic barrier (which should stick up above the ground level an inch or so so water does not flow in from nearby contaminated soil) your potential exposure will probably be very very small (and this comes from a highly cynical and cautious enviro-no-nukeser) and MUCH safer than even organic or conventional grown foods whose growers have failed to take these simple precautions.
4. Make sure you mark the circles where you planted clean soil so that NEXT year you can add new clean compost (compost yourself with least likely contaminated compost materials such as tropical fruit peels, products from the southern hemisphere, last years manure, etc,) and soil to those plant areas and you may be able to almost entirely eliminate the risk of exposure from these Fukushima contaminants.
5. Hydroponics and hanging plants in upside down pots (like tomato plants in dirt filled baskets made from milk/water gallon jugs) might work well too and eliminate any contact with contaminated local soil.
Really I think BRAWM's testing shows the exposure from air, rain and water is undetectable if not almost completely eliminated. But their tests DO show that there are still amounts in the present soil and plants so not only remediating but simply replacing the soil that the plants grow in an eliminating or reducing entranceways for the radiocesium IN the local soil id the BEST way to deal with the issue AND since you can do all that work and STILL haqve a garden, you spouse should accept that as a reasonable compromise as it will make you both happy.
Believe me, I posted a thread here about how EVERY SQUARE FOOT of the country, on avergae, has radiocesium deposited on it according to the comprehensive test ban treaty organization and was lambasted for fearmongering BUT it IS there and here all over the topsoil and plants AND there is NO REASON you have to allow it to get into your food. Simply plant in soil mixtures bagged before 3-11-11 in areas and ways which will not allow or minimize leakage into those root areas from any nearby soils. I would draw a design for you but it is simple: deeper hole (1 foot to 18 inches), at least 18-24 inches wide with a plastic or other material (nonporous) barrier surrounding the plant under ground about a foot from the plant. Also put some holes in the bottom so it doesn't pool up if you put the platic UNDER the plant (which I would not recommend at all as the new rain cxoming down will not contaminate the roots).
I have thouight about this a lot and I think this would work UNLESS there are new plumes or testing shows new deposits arriving.
PLANT. But DIG IT first and get some nice clan soil which is probably still from last fall (but check).
Clean Bagged Soil
It is almost impossible to find "clean" bagged soil in California. OSH, Home Depot, and the local nurseries stored their pre-3/11 soil OUTSIDE during the rains of March & April. I saw it. The bags got wet. I know because I felt the bags...sopping wet. I also checked out the one OSH store that stores their bags of soil inside a warehouse. They sold all the old soil. All they have is newly arrived soil that is really wet. So, those bags were stored outside in the rain OR they were recently bagged! So good luck finding "clean" soil.
I had the same idea that you had. I was going to dig deep holes, put large plastic containers (about 10 gal size) into them and fill them with clean soil. Found the containers, but not the soil. So I took the containers back for a refund.
don't take marital advice
don't take marital advice from nuclear engineers or random strangers on the internet :)
doing your best to keep your food and garden free of toxins can be a part of the gardening experience, not a burden necessarily.
i did some non-scientific (as I am not a scientist) tests using a geiger counter at my friend's organic farm in mendocino county. each material was tested for 20 minutes:
wood chips which had been packaged before 3/11: <20 CPM
spinach, both in ground and picked: ~40CPM
soil: ~60CPM
spinach, after being washed in water/bentonite clay mix and rinsed: ~30CPM
the fact that the spinach became less radioactive after being washed with bentonite seemed to be the most telling to me; also the fact that he soil registered so high in relative terms (although, i did not have a pre-3/11 sample to test).
the way i see it, using some phytoremediation, along with adding some known clean amendments, would just lead to an overall cleaner garden...
I complete agree: you
I complete agree: you should not take advice from random strangers on the internet.
However, seeing as you're on this website, I'm assuming you're looking for some experts in the field of radiation detection to give you a reasonable description of the dangers facing us. You can go see all of our monitoring analysis, including how we calculated the dose and how dangerous it is to people. As we've mentioned before, you can even walk into our lab in Etcheverry Hall and talk to us in person, if you're that worried.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
I think you mistook what I
I think you mistook what I said... which was that one should not take *marital* advice from nuclear engineers. Going to nuclear engineers for nuclear advice is perfectly reasonable :)
Hey Tim
Is the assessment from the poster below talking about the fall out history and what BRAWM has reported incorrect? Just trying to put things into perspective.
Also, exactly what dangers are we facing?
Sorry, I'm not sure which
Sorry, I'm not sure which post in particular you're referring to, but I'll try to put the risks into perspective. Local farms here in California are showing very small levels of radiation, and I'd think anything we planted now would have even less, given that we've had time for dillution in the soil as well as clean rainwater recently.
Our results page shows that to you'd have to eat literally tons of this produce to get the same dose as an airplane flight. You'd have to eat twenty times more just to get the same dose as the average American's yearly radon dose. You can slice it however you like when talking about how dangerous this stuff is, however, our team has always held that these levels are nothing to worry about.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
There are no safe levels of internal radiation!
As reassuring a message that you give Tim to the publics concerns about radiation uptake into
our food grown in small gardens or larger farms you cannot with any credibility continue to compare
it to doses in an airplane flight. Even though the readings your wonderful team at Brawm are doing
are showing lower levels now does not mean that they will stay low. There are three core meltdowns
going on right now and no one knows yet what the corium is going to do. That is why it is so so
important to continue the testing you are doing. It does give us real time data on which we can
determine our level of comfort with your findings. As a small farmer I want to see testing done on
produce, even more than you are doing right now. Be nice to see results for egg, melons, seeds,
zuchinni, corn etc.... Keep up the great work!
I'm sorry you don't find our
I'm sorry you don't find our dose calculation convincing (even though we provided a full discussion of how we did the analysis and confirmed our results and comparison with a health physicist), but that's why I also compared the level of dose to what the average person gets from radon -- this is in the air that you breath, so it what you would think of as an "internal dose".
As for the possibility of increased levels of fallout, while I can't predict the future, we're pretty sure that there won't be any further releases seen here in the US. The cores have been melting down for quite some time now (which is why they had the releases in the first place months ago). We will continue to monitor, but in the meantime I will continue to drink milk and eat tomatoes from the plant sitting outside my front door.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
Yep. Ignore Nuclear Engineers and Radom Strangers
And go with "Phytoremediation". Your wife will wait the years
it will take for "several rotations of Pigweed" to just suck
that radioactive material right up. But, then again, maybe not.
It's not something you plant right along side your veggies that
protects them like gopher repelling plants. It takes time (years)
while you grow, remove, grow, remove, grow, remove. Then at some
point, when your hypochondriac side is satisfied, you plant
something edible.
Phytoremediation:
Using Plants To Clean Up Soils
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun00/soil0600.htm
In a series of soil extraction studies, Kochian's team found the ammonium ion was most effective in dissolving cesium-137 in soils. This treatment increased the availability of cesium-137 for root uptake and significantly stimulated radioactive cesium accumulation in plant shoots.
Later, Kochian did field studies with six different plant species in collaboration with Mark Fuhrmann, a DOE scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. They found significant variation in the effectiveness of plant species for cleaning up contaminated sites.
"One species, a pigweed called Amaranthus retroflexus, was up to 40 times more effective than others tested in removing radiocesium from soil. We were able to remove 3 percent of the total amount in just one 3-month growing season," says Kochian. "With two or three yearly crops, the plant could clean up the contaminated site in less than 15 years."
The cesium contamination is
The cesium contamination is relatively light (in the USA, that is). If you want to make it cleaner, phytoremediation is pretty much your only option. If you rotate in phytoremediators, and then amend using known-clean sources, you can clean your soil. Yes, it might take years.
I've noticed how upset people get whenever you mention positive action in response to this catastrophe. It's become supremely uncool to give a **** about anything these days. Don't let your wife or anyone else move you from your basic protective instincts. (And yes, that's marital advice from an internet stranger...)
Some people looked at the second explosion in Japan and said "that's not a hydrogen explosion" while others said "that's definitely a hydrogen explosion because the government and the media said so."
It turns out that the people who trusted themselves and their own knowledge (hydrogen explosions aren't brown) were right, and the people who trusted the government and the media were wrong. Go figure!
Has there been a definative answer as to what the explosion was?
Is there any evidence (other than the color) that the explosion was
not hydrogen?
what about spinach washed in
what about spinach washed in normal water as a control?
you're right .. in
you're right .. in retrospect we should have done that to control for dust/dirt on the leaves. will do that at our next opportunity - sometime in June.
I am in the process of
I am in the process of replanting my garden.
I think that by removing the surface of the soil and replacing it with non contaminated soil, you have greatly reduced that contamination which was small to begin with. I don't believe that the recent rains have much contamination in them based upon the recent BRAUM air and rain results.
The other thing that may be of concern is the source of your plants. If they were contaminanted then you may have a problem. If you wish to avoid this get plants that were grown in a green house or better yet grow your own from seed.
Nothing is perfect, but these precautions should reduce the contamination even more than what many people believe is already a safe level.
Bagged Potting Soil
The bagged potting soil available for sale now is all post-311. All the "old" bags of dirt, compost, etc. have been purchased. Notice how wet they are! The soil piles the bags come from and/or the bags have been rained on. Plus, many garden centers left their bags out in the rain during the winter months!
So, don't assume that bags of soil are safe...
I was on the phone a lot
I was on the phone a lot about this. The bagged soil and compost in most nurseries right now is from last summer or fall. They stop bagging in the winter and spring when it is wet.
Good luck!
Clean Soil
It doesn't matter if it is from last fall...if it was stored outside during the rains of March & April. The soil inside got wet.
RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT in SOILS and PLANTS
This appears to be a good take on the subject.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37426708/The-Behavior-of-Radioactive-Fallout-i...
The Behavior of RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT in SOILS and PLANTS
National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council Publication 1092 (1963)
As a married man myself, I
As a married man myself, I would recommend listening to your wife. Not only does she bring up a good point -- that your own garden will still have substantially less pollutants than anything bought in the supermarket -- but I don't think the minute levels of fallout warrant risking marital strife.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
I agree with Tim
Your wife is more likely to kill you than the radiation from Fukushima :-)
Historically speaking, the entire northern hemisphere has been dusted
with much more radioactive material than we are getting from this event.
And, after 50 years on this planet, I can honestly say I don't know of
anyone who has stopped planting and/or consuming their own veggies during
any period of fallout. I'm sure there are some who have stopped. I'm also
sure they are in a VERY small minority. The iodine-131 is effectively gone.
Cesium is still here from the Chernobyl gift. In fact, it's here from all
the nuclear weapons testing (it's NOT completely gone after 30 years).
Neither are all the other longer halflife isotopes.
From the BRAWN and government reports, the airborne contamination is all
but gone. The iodine is gone. And the last BRAWM air result was the lowest
for cesium since the beginning of their reporting. The goverment reports
are showing nothing detectable in the air. So, contamination from
additional fallout appears to be a non-concern.
As for covering up your garden out of concern for rainfall, the BRAWM team
has had no detections of iodine or cesium for the last 4 reports over the
last month (4/19-5/15). If it's not in the air, it's not in the rain. And
it's not getting on your veggies or freshly worked soil.
So, relax. Plant your veggies. And make your wife happy. Or at least find
something else to drive her crazy.
GIT-R-DONE!!!
Home Gardens
.
Above-ground planter boxes with 'top-hats' should be fine, if you are on well water.
A sprinkler system, set to run during early-morning (low-wind) conditions would wash off the radionuclides.
Clay seems to be the consensus over sandy soil.
The results will probably be about as good as hydroponics and greenhouses, all things considered.
Just a hobby gardener's opinion, not an expert.
Clay Soil???
What do you mean by "clay seems to be the consensus over sandy soil"? Is it good or bad?
Clay is good
.
The earlier cited National Academy of Science paper indicated that clay binds the radionuclide cations more effectively than sand. Oh and that 'good soil' in the generally understood meaning, minimizes radioisotope uptake by food plants.
The paper also indicated that radioisotope uptake from roots was very limited, relative to the larger depositions by wind-blown radioactive fallout and black (radioactive) rain.
If memory serves, they documented good results with the use of sodium bicarbonate and calcium.
Suggest that you read the article for the details.
Do some google-ing on
Do some google-ing on "phytoremediation" - basically plants you can plant which will suck the bad stuff out of your soil. You can rotate certain plants into your garden plots which will reduce the contamination over time.
Apparently Pigweed is the best for getting rid of radioactive particles - a light contamination can apparently be significantly cleaned up with several rotations of Pigweed. Other good plants for this purpose are Indian Mustard, Sunflowers, and Hemp (which is of course illegal at the moment).
If you do use phytoremediation, remember that you can't use the resulting plants for human or animal consumption - you need to find a way to sequester the biomass so that the radioactive stuff doesn't return to the soil or go into animals, etc.
Sounds like a big hassle, but since bioaccumulation is a big deal when it comes to radionuclides, it could be important...
Thanks. I heard about
Thanks. I heard about pigweed as well. I'll try to do some research on that. So does rotating them into the garden mean that I can plant them along with the veggie plants and I don't have to wait for a full crop of pigweed to grow first? I need to get the plants we bought into the ground ASAP as they've been sitting around in pots for quite a while.
As for bioaccumulation, I still don't know what to think about it. I talked to a good number of gardeners at the local cooperative extension and various garden centers and not a single one of them was concerned about radionuclides from Fukushima. They're all planting their personal veggie gardens as usual. Obviously, anyone who's following this forum is already concerned about the effects and is willing to take precautions. But then we have BRAWM team members themselves here claiming they're not changing their diets at all and are scarfing down strawberries, spinach and milk and giving them to their children without any concern whatsoever.
I assume it's better to err on the side of caution but I'm wondering if it's more of a fringe thing to worry so much about this. Like I said, I'm somewhat of a hypochondriac, so I when I was tilling the soil, I wore a dust mask and worried the whole time about inhaling particles, even touching the soil. I started to feel a bit ridiculous. I wish someone could give a definitive answer on all this just to make sure we're not all being mental here. But from what it sounds like, there's no way to be sure with such diametrically opposed opinions being thrown back and forth. So I remain in a neurotic no-man's land not knowing what to think. I hate it.
The Sierras sure have been
The Sierras sure have been pummeled with precipitation this year.
Can't hurt to be on the safe side, can it? How old are you? If you are in your late 60's, then you're probably going to die of something else before a Fuku radiation-caused cancer gets ya. If you are younger, you might want to take better care of your health, including eating organic or pesticide-free as much as possible.
I think it also matters if there are current health issues in your life. I'm deal with some hefty ones myself, so I wear a mask on windy days and play in my potted garden with latex gloves. These days, I don't sweep much, but instead regularly hose off my front porch, because I like to spend time out there. I also take my shoes off at the front door, but have been doing that for over 30 years.
Why not compromise with your wife? Plant the strawberries in pots with potting soil. Cover your garden when it rains and water with well water, if available. Thoroughly amending your soil to mitigate radioactive particles will make your plants more nutritious, so that's a win-win.
BTW, a bit off-topic, Hemp is being grown in Belarus to take the Chernobyl radiation out of the soil. They've found that it's the best plant for phytoremediation. Time for the U.S. to get on the Hemp train.
The hemp in Belarus will be using the hemp to make ethanol. Henry Ford thought hemp oil was the best fuel his vehicles.
Wonder if the Belarus ethanol will be radioactive?
the best approach for the
the best approach for the Sierra soils that received a larger dose of Cesium
early on is to amend your garden plot with lots of aged compost with rock
dust (minerals added) and beneficial fungi and bacteria. Also put in some
extra potassium as it will help prevent some of cesium from up taking into the plants.
you can plant sunflowers to soak up the radiation. don't eat the seeds. the sunflowers
will be toxic so don't incorporate them back into your garden.
wash off the fallout with water. cover your plants when it rains if possible.
you could incorporate into the top 2 to 4 inches biochar which will absorb toxic
pollutants and keep them out of the root system. if you use biochar add some
additional fertilizer as the charcoal will absorb nitrogen. pre-soak it in a
fertilizer solution.
enjoy your garden. plant flowers for color