This is

This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Cynthia Graber.

Got a minute?

Foraging for food in urban areas is on the rise,

not dumpster diving, collecting fruits and herbs.

Throughout cities, forgotten fruit trees still produce, well, produce.

For example, there was a peach tree in my former backyard in Somerville near Boston.

And today there are even maps to some of those trees so faragers can take advantage of free produce that otherwise goes largely uneaten by people anyway.

But after one member of what's called the League of Urban Canners in the Boston area was discovered to have relatively high levels of blood lead.

Researchers at Wellesley College decided to test urban fruit and herbs.

They wanted to see if the fruit posed a threat due to lead or other contaminants in urban soils.

The League of Urban Canners provided 166 samples of faraged fruit, including apples, peaches, and cherries, and herbs.

The scientist dehydrated samples in a manner similar to that of the urban canners,

and they compared those specimens to commercially available fruit.

Apples did indeed contain lead, but the amount in an average apple was significantly lower than what the EPA

consider safe in a day's supply of tap water.

Next, the team investigated the nutrients in far-aged urban fruit, and the picked fruit in general

had higher levels of most

micronutrients than did store-bought fruit. Calcium and iron were higher in

all urban samples and other nutrients including manganese, zinc, magnesium, and

potassium were higher in some urban fruits. including manganese, zinc, magnesium, and potassium

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