Yellowknife garden produce safe to eat, contains more nutrients, say researchers

A study of produce grown in gardens around Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah shows that local veggies have slightly higher levels of arsenic than what you'd buy from the grocery store — but the risk of getting cancer from them is still considered to be very low. 

And, in a finding that surprised Michael Palmer, manager of the North Slave Research Centre at Aurora College and Iris Koch, an adjunct associate professor at Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, locally grown produce also revealed higher levels of nutrients.

The findings are based on samples gathered from 47 garden plots in the area in 2020, as part of a two-year study,  which also collected another 40 samples this year, that aims to answer a question Palmer said he hears often. 

That is, whether or not it's safe to eat vegetables grown in the three communities. 

"The lived memory of mining in the region is still pretty strong," said Palmer. "There was a huge amount of people that were interested in this project … it shows us that people are still really interested in knowing about this, and it's a persistent concern in peoples' minds." 

During more than half a century of mining, 19,000 tonnes of toxic arsenic trioxide dust went up the stacks of smelters at the Giant and Con gold metal mines and settled on land and lakes in and around the city. 

Palmer said it's important to understand the range of arsenic levels in garden soils because people use soil from a variety of sources — including local quarries and bagged from hardware stores — and because of a rise in agricultural initiatives in the area.