The American Chemical Society (ACS) has released a brief podcast mostly concerned with possible nanotoxicology as it relates to agriculture. From the August 24, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

With the curtain about to rise on a much-anticipated new era of “nanoagriculture” — using nanotechnology to boost the productivity of plants for food, fuel, and other uses — scientists are describing huge gaps in knowledge about the effects of nanoparticles on corn, tomatoes, rice and other food crops. That’s the topic of the latest episode in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) award-winning “Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions” podcast series.

The podcast (audio and transcript available here) is less than 3 minutes and includes an interview with Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, Ph.D. at the University of Texas at El Paso and a co-investigator for the National Science Foundation/Environmental Protection Agency University of California Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (from the podcast transcript),

“Nanoparticles, which are 1/50,000th the width of a human hair, are used in products ranging from medicines to cosmetics. The particles also could end up in the environment, settling in the soil, especially as fertilizers, growth enhancers and other nanoagricultural products hit the market. Some plants can take-up and accumulate nanoparticles. But it is unclear whether this poses a problem for plants or for the animals (like humans) that eat them.”

Gardea-Torresdey and colleagues came to this conclusion after analyzing nearly 100 scientific articles on the effects nanoparticles have on edible plants. There’s more detail in the Nanowerk news item and at the ACS website. You might also find my October 22, 2009 posting (scroll down 1/2 way) about work with carbon nanotubes and tomatoes being done in Arkansas of interest.