There's a SoilWeb app for iphone and android that will give you the soil type for your gps coordinates. It's not probably not worth your time to get it tested unless you are using a large area but if it's bright red then chances are it's high in manganese and aluminum, low in calcium, zinc, boron, and ph. Being that close to industrial sites I'd encourage you to use raised beds and mix your own using commonly found ingredient lists in order to avoid accidentally ingesting toxic waste and heavy metals. Square Foot Gardening is a good book for beginners and if you can follow a recipe to bake a cake from scratch then the most difficult part will be chasing down the shopping list.
The most exciting development in organic ag right now is worm compost tea sprayed directly under the leaf and fed through drip line. It actually release some chemical compounds that can match the size gains of Miracle Grow/NPK bombs, with the added benefit of your veggies not tasting like plastic.
You'll also need to look into pesticides like Neem Oil, Entrust, and Pyganic because the bugs are brutal and unfortunately overspraying has made a lot of them (especially Diamondback Moth) immune to a lot of stuff. Overspray also kills the mini-wasps that are their natural enemies, as well as other beneficial insects that you want hanging around to keep the aphids, mites, and thrips under control. Use sparingly and rotate often.
Then there are of course birds, plant diseases, infected feral cats using it like a litter box, and scariest of all the Rat Lung Worm which actually rots away chunks of your brain and turns people into either stuttering idiots or violent psychopaths.
It's totally worth it, just make sure you wash your harvest really well and keep your tools clean.