Eat local, but contaminated?

“I was in the vegetable garden of a member of Mères au front Saguenay, who lives in Jonquière, near the Rio Tinto complex. When I bit into a cucumber, I had a doubt: could the vegetable be contaminated? says Édith Ouellet, a resident of the region who recently joined the activist movement launched by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Laure Waridel.

While we are increasingly advocating local consumption and food sovereignty, gardening appears to be an ecological and economic civic gesture. “But there is nothing simple in life. People are encouraged to eat locally and even grow their own fruits and vegetables for better food security. But could there be a risk to their health if fruits and vegetables are contaminated? asks Nolwenn Noisel, professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Montreal.

It was thanks to Édith Ouellet, who contacted the professor specializing in environmental contaminants, that a research project on the contamination of vegetable gardens in Saguenay was set up. It was financed by the programCommitmentof the Quebec Research Fund, which allows citizens to propose a research idea and carry it out in close collaboration with a researcher.