Paris, France - Some scars run so deep that we must learn to live with them, accepting that they will continue to carry painful memories of the past. Perhaps this is how we should approach Paris' soil pollution, which has accumulated over three centuries of industrial activities, urban waste disposal, and human fertilizer use in the surrounding areas. Currently, there are almost 600 polluted sites and soils listed in Île-de-France! This legacy of industrial heritage makes traditional urban farming on open soils quite challenging. Jardin Des Traveres, one of the two pilot sites of Fab City Grand Paris, has experience dealing with soil pollution and its challenges for urban food production, similar to many urban farming projects in Paris and its suburbs.

Maybe Paris' aspiration to become a garden city, characterized by a largely self-sufficient and resilient food landscape, needs to adapt its approach to food production in light of the pervasive land pollution. In many areas across the city, food producers are already successfully adapting to the poor soils and contamination. Some opt for futuristic food production methods, such as soilless hydroponics or other forms of indoor farming. However, harking back to Paris' historical market garden practices also teaches us valuable lessons on how to cultivate food above ground. In the past, food was grown in wooden chassis above the soil, utilizing abundant manure and compost as fertilizer. Reviving these traditional market gardening skills is undoubtedly a crucial part of the puzzle, alongside innovative indoor farming techniques.

The question that remains is how much effort we are willing and need to put into regenerating polluted and abandoned sites to eventually reclaim them for direct food cultivation. There are numerous approaches we could consider, such as the application of biochar to abandoned land to immobilize pollution. Additionally, as demonstrated by Groupe ECT excavated soils from urban development projects can often serve as a substrate for regreening, revegetation, and farming initiatives, thereby reducing the need to import topsoil from distant locations.