PLANT VARIATION IN CD, PB, ZN AND AS ACCUMULATION AND BIOAVAILABILITY AND METHODS TO LIMIT RISK

Characterize the influence of zinc and iron concentrations in edible crop tissues on bioavailability of crop cadmium to animals; characterize potential transfer of soil lead, arsenic, and copper by vegetable crps grown on long-term orchard soils and other contaminated agricultural soils and methods to prevent this transfer; characterize genetic resources and inheritance of grain Cd to reduce cadmium in durum wheat, flax, and nonoilseed sunflower and release improved lower Cd germplasm; develop methods to identify levels of heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic and cadmium that might be food safety/security risks to give us the tools to prevent contamination of food of both plant and animal origin.