Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Demand for Diversity: The Globalization of Asian Fruit and Vegetable Production for New York City Markets

纽约市呈现了一个巨大且不断变化的市场，市场上有各种各样的水果和蔬菜。有些产品是地区性生产的，大多数来自世界的遥远角落。最近对美国农业商品链的研究表明，同质化和公司占有与空间扩张有关。然而，在纽约市，食品采购的方法正在不断重塑。纽约市的东亚移民发展了一种多样化和充满活力的制度，以满足其种族群体的需求。尽管亚洲食品体系正在迅速进行地理扩张，但它表现出了与其他全球食品体系不同的特点。建立在社会关系基础上的贸易网络、多样化的种植制度以及家族拥有和经营的企业构成了亚洲的食品体系。这一食品系统看似独特的性质引出了主要的研究问题，亚洲水果和蔬菜的分配和生产是如何组织的？它与企业控制的全球化农业有什么不同？它对社会和环境有不同的影响吗？该项目将结合先前关于农业全球化、替代食品系统和农业生物多样性的研究，描述和分析新兴全球范围内亚洲水果和蔬菜的种植和销售。该项目将位于多个地点，包括纽约市作为市场目的地，佛罗里达州南部作为成熟的生产和分销点，洪都拉斯作为新出现的生产地点。该项目将标准生态调查和空间分析与半结构化访谈相结合，研究消费者、分销商和生产者之间的关系最终如何影响食品系统中植物资源的使用。这项研究将重点放在一个广泛按种族区分的食物系统上，描述移民如何不仅创造新的市场需求，而且同时创造新的资源使用系统来满足他们的需求。在一个人员和商品高度流动的世界里，这种理解意义重大。这个项目将建立在地理学研究传统的基础上，即研究政治和经济结构对自然资源利用的影响，同时采取一种新的方法，将这一传统与对全球农业系统的研究结合起来。研究结果将包括对一个研究较少的生产和分配系统的影响分析，并将为以市场为基础的农业发展和贸易监管提出建议。纽约市的高中生作为实习生被纳入该项目，为他们提供科学培训。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究事业。

New York City presents an enormous and ever-changing market for a large variety of fruits and vegetables. Some products are produced regionally, most come from distant corners of the world. Recent studies on agricultural commodity chains in the United States suggest that homogenization and corporate appropriation are associated with spatial expansion. Yet within New York City methods of food procurement are continually remade. East Asian immigrants in New York City have developed a diverse and dynamic system to satisfy the demands of their ethnic groups. Although the Asian food system is rapidly undergoing geographic expansion, it displays characteristics apart from other global food systems. Trade networks based in social relations, diverse cropping systems, and family owned and operated firms constitute the Asian food system. The seemingly unique nature of this food system leads to the main research questions, how is the distribution and production of Asian fruits and vegetables organized? Is it different than corporately controlled, globalized agriculture? Does it have different social and environmental impacts? Tying together previous studies on the globalization of agriculture, alternative food systems and studies on agrobiodiversity, this project will describe and analyze the cultivation and marketing of Asian fruits and vegetables on a newly emergent global scale. The project will be multi-sited and include New York City as the market destination, southern Florida as a well-established point of production and distribution, and Honduras as a newly emergent site of production. This project will combine standard ecological surveys and spatial analysis with semi-structured interviews to examine how the relationship between consumers, distributors and producers ultimately influence the use of plant resources in a food system. By focusing on a food system broadly distinguished by ethnicity, this research will describe how immigrants not only create new market demands, but concurrently create new systems of resource use to satisfy their demands. This understanding is significant in a world of highly mobile people and commodities. This project will build on the tradition of research within geography that looks at the influence of political and economic structures on natural resource use, while taking a new approach that integrates this tradition with research on global agricultural systems. Research results will include impact analysis of a poorly-studied system of production and distribution and will generate suggestions for market-based agricultural development and trade regulation. High school students in New York City are included in the project as interns, providing them with scientific training. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.