As and Cd in soil can be assimilated and accumulated by vegetables and can be subsequently ingested by humans. Contradictory effects of organic fertilizer application on As and Cd accumulation in soil have been reported in previous studies. An eight-year greenhouse study was conducted on a sandy loam soil in Beijing, China to investigate the effects of organic fertilizer application rate on soil properties, and As and Cd accumulation in soil. The contamination risk of pak choi grown after eight years’ application of organic fertilizer was also evaluated. Soil organic carbon increased 3.0–3.8 times with low, medium and high rates of fertilizer application in 2018 compared to the initial soil. Organic fertilizer application significantly increased soil nutrients and microbial biomass while it mildly affected soil pH. The bioavailability of As/Cd has decreased after eight years’ application of organic fertilizer. Pak choi crop harvested from all three treatments in 2018 did not pose a threat to human health, even for life-time consumption. Soil total As content significantly decreased with organic fertilizer application, mainly due to the lower As content in the applied fertilizer than that in soil. Continuous application of clean organic fertilizer can be adopted to reduce the contamination risk of highly contaminated soil in the soil–plant system.

Heavy metals in agricultural soils pose a major threat to food safety and human health. Among all heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) is the most problematic with contamination rates of 7% in arable land and 5.3% in facility vegetable growing soils in China. In order to employ a “remediation while producing” mode in the contaminated soils, many remediation approaches have been investigated with unsatisfactory results. Recently, grafting has been reported to have the potential of being environmentally friendly, efficient, widely applicable and low-cost for soil remediation in vegetable production. A review of recent advances in the mechanisms of Cd accumulation in plants as influenced by grafting was conducted, including the processes of root uptake and translocation to the aboveground tissues, and xylem/phloem loading. The impact of grafting on numerous aspects associated with Cd accumulation in plants was found to extend from the rhizosphere soil microbial community, rootstock genetic variation, rootstock-scion interaction to plant responses. By understanding the mechanisms of grafting in Cd detoxification, it provided a theoretical basis for the selection of rootstocks with low Cd accumulation potential and its application as an effective phytoremediation method in Cd contaminated soils.