Soil safety tips from Extension expert

Got a garden? Thinking about starting one? Check in with NC Cooperative Extension specialist and NC State assistant professor Matt Polizzotto for quick tips to minimize your risk of dangerous toxic metals or other contaminants. He has also written a longer guide to the subject.

Polizzotto is the right guy to ask. His field-driven research has taken him around the world, studying the integration between groundwater and soil and environmental chemistry.

“Our research tries to inform sustainable management of soil and water resources,” Polizzotto told sustainability communications coordinator Carla Davis. “…For me, what is sustainable is based on how long can a system function before it either can’t do what it’s intended to do or there are adverse effects.”