[iamjs]

I know the Chernobyl fallout had a pretty significant impact on agricultural in the region, but I don't think I've ever heard about anything similar in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, or Colorado. Why not? Surely there is less agricultural activity on the American West than in Eastern Europe, but is that the only reason?

[u8080]

You could check present Cesium-137 levels in mushrooms or forest berries with pretty simple tools to track that btw.

In Russia we used blueberries from certain region(they were openly sold on marketplaces) to calibrate amateur spectrometers(like RadiaCode 101).