Kelsey: How are attitudes about food/ag/consumption part of identity formations in Hawai'i?

[Kelsey Amos]

To elaborate, I ask this question because hopefully the answer will show both what potentials there are to expand on these attitudes constructively, as well as what aspects of these are problematic in that they function as barriers to social change. This question also has the potential to map the various food and sustainability related initiatives and activist groups already at work in Hawai'i, though my sense is as an annotated bibliography it will point more to gaps in our knowledge and thus opportunities for scholarship about these groups. 

sources and commentary to come.

[Kelsey Amos]

Dahre, Ulf Johansson. "SPAM-a lot: Why SPAM is not (all) unhealthy food SPAM as Political and Cultural Resistance in Hawaiʻi." Feast and famine: Exploring Relationships with Food in the Pacific. University College London. Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, UK. 7 September 2012. Conference Presentation.

Dahre seeks to explain the apparent contradiction of the widespread consumption of SPAM in Miloliʻi, Hawaiʻi, a community with a resistant Hawaiian cultural identity based around fishing. In doing so he explores some of the history of SPAM in Hawaiʻi and develops a line of thought that shows how eating SPAM is an act of cultural resistance to American critiques of SPAM as unhealthy. This article might be useful as a starting point for exploring how imported, low nutritional value foodstuffs have become part of cultural identities in Hawaiʻi--even those that are purportedly resistant to American occupation.

Freilich, Robert H. and Bruce G. Peshoff. “The Social Costs of Sprawl.” Urban Lawyer. 29 (1997): 183-198.

Though quite brief this article gives a starting-point overview of Americaʻs transformation from an agrarian nation to an urban and then suburban one. Freilich and Peshoff inventory the problems created by this “sprawl.” I include this article because it might serve as background for a researcher attempting to trace the development of Hawaiʻiʻs suburban sprawl. A question to answer might be how has the “American dream” of the single family suburban home intersected with other more Hawaiʻi-based dreams about lifestyle and social mobility?

Lind, Andrew W. “Assimilation in Rural Hawaii.” American Journal of Sociology. 45.2 (1939): 200-214. Print.

A sociological work that betrays the biases of its time, Lindʻs article doesnʻt focus solely on food or food systems, but does mention in two brief sections the foods eaten by Japanese workers-turned-immigrants in two stages of assimilation. In the first stage migrant workers intending to return to Japan eat whatever is available, in the second more established communities begin to import food products from Japan but never achieve a fully “Japanese” diet. This might be a useful source for exploring the ways that settlers and American assimilation influence cultural tastes.

Linnekin, Jocelyn S. “defining tradition: variations on the Hawaiian identity.” American Ethnologist. (1982) 241-252. Print.

Although I find Linnekinʻs argument here--that Hawaiian tradition is being invented by intellectuals and even “folk” as part of an ongoing nationalist movement--highly problematic in that it refuses to see the processes it describes in positive, culture-affirming terms but instead in the mode of the trivializing, post-modern, neocolonizing Western academic, I also see a potential use for this article in that it describes something of the importance of rural identity to Hawaiians.

McMullin, Juliet. “The call to life: revitalizing a healthy Hawaiian identity.” Social Science & Medicine. 61 (2005): 809-820. Print.

McMullin sets out to define what it means to be a “healthy Hawaiian” by conducting formal and informal interviews and doing participant observation. In the process she questions dominant assumptions about health being simply the lack of disease. Her research shows the importance of access to food grown and gathered from the land in Hawaiian conceptions of health. She points out that because this necessary access to land leads into political questions, Hawaiian health is itself a political question. This article will be useful for demonstrating how food systems and Hawaiian identity are linked.

Mihesuah, Devon A. “Decolonizing our Diets by Recovering Our Ancestorsʻ Gardens.” The American Indian Quarterly. 27.3&4 (2003): 807-839. Print.

The article inventories the health challenges facing Native American communities today (particularly the Choctaws) as well as the foods that were part of Native diets before contact, and how diet and exercise changes resulting from contact have contributed to Native health problems. It ends by offering advice and options for how to improve health by partially or wholly returning to a pre-contact diet and exercise regime. Although it does not address Native Hawaiian food and health challenges, this article is good background on the food-related health challenges facing indigenous populations everywhere, and how indigenous peoples themselves are conceptualizing and addressing these problems.

Perez, Craig Santos. “Chamorro Cereal Killer.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Facing Hawaiʻiʻs Future (Book Review).” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Foods You Meet in Longs.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Fresh Fish Islander.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “I eat therefore I SPAM.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “On Being Mayonesian.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Refrigeration, The Pacific Body, and Other Perishables.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Rice Matters: Calrose is calrose is calrose (Scoop One).” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Rice Matters: Calrose is calrose is calrose (Scoop Two).” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “The Protocols of Poi.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Today I am Blogging about the Grocery Store.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “Uncle Spam Wants You.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

--. “White Sugarʻs Burden.” The Kenyon Review. n.p. 7 October 2013. Web.

These creative non-fiction blog posts detail Perezʻs thoughts on what he calls “gastrocolonialism,” the simultaneous theft of native land in the Pacific for industrial agriculture and the inundation of Pacific islands with cheap, unhealthy foodstuffs that damage the health of Pacific Islanders. He ties this process often to a misfounded desire among Pacific Islanders to assimilate to American culture, decolonization efforts, and diaspora and migration. These blogs would be useful as primary creative works that a researcher could mine for insights into food and both assimilationist and oppositional Pacific Islander identities.

Soper, Kate. “Rethinking the ʻgood lifeʻ: the consumer as citizen.” Capitalism Nature Socialism. 15.3 (2006): 111-116. Print.

Soper reviews the split between consumer and citizen identities, noting that among the various interpretations of the consumer (as free and self-interested, as manipulated, or as free and self-styling) there is no room for making decisions about consumption that are informed by the more democratic mode of the citizen. She then goes on to define her consumer citizen as one who acknowledges the needs for everyday goods, but also basis some or all consumer choices on considerations of long term social and environmental benefits. This article provides theoretical background for anyone looking at discourses and identity constructions around the choice to “eat local” in Hawaiʻi.

Suryanata, Krisnawati. “Diversified Agriculture, Land Use, and Agrofood Networks in Hawaii.” Economic Geography. 78.1 (2002): 71-86. Print.

Suryanata expands on the argument made in the below article and includes with her critique of diversified agriculture (with its niche products, dependent on exotic constructions of Hawaiʻi) a suggestion that we use and actor-network perspective to theorize what she sees as viable alternatives for agriculture in Hawaiʻi: ”networks of social actors” including those working on Hawaiian food systems as part of community health and pride projects, as well as gourmet chefs promoting regional cuisine. This article is useful from a culture and politics perspective in that it maps out some of the social actors on the scene that are pursuing alternative and potentially sustainable agricultural options.

--. “Products from Paradise: The Social Construction of Hawaii Crops.” Agriculture and Human Values. 17 (2000): 181-189. Print.

Concerned with weighing in on the trend of growing high-value niche crops (“diversified agriculture”) rather than dealing with land tenure and labor issues, Suryanata exposes how and why farmers turn to growing specialty niche crops that are competitive mostly because of exotic social constructions of Hawaiʻi used in marketing. Using the examples of pineapple and macadamia nuts, she is also concerned with showing how this strategy can be undermined when niche foods are exposed to global consistency standards and global interests appropriate the symbolic meanings of these foods. This article would be of interest to anyone attempting to connect discussions about colonial and now neocolonial representations of Hawaiʻi with discussions about Hawaiʻiʻs food system.

Wilkins, Jennifer L. “Eating right here: Moving from consumer to food citizen.” Agriculture and Human Values. 22 (2005): 269-273. Print.

Wilkins explores the concept of “food citizenship,” the obstacles to achieving it, and suggestions for how it can be achieved. Wilkinsʻ work might be seen as quite related to Soperʻs. Articles that question the ideological basis of the melding of “consumer” and “citizen” roles might be in order to complicate Wilkinsʻ and Soperʻs arguments.

Further research / gaps:

It would be helpful to have more on urbanization and rural exodus and the effects of these on American culture. Ideally there might be work that takes this American framework and puts it in conversation with what we know about social mobility as it relates to Hawaiʻiʻs plantation history and the deeper history of Hawaiian subsistence practices.

It would also be nice if research existed about more of the various food activist groups in Hawaiʻi and how they articulate the problem and their vision, goals, ethos, etc.

As mentioned in the Wilkins annotation, it would be nice to balance out the research into consumer-citizen identities to find out to what degree they are helpful in achieving food self-sufficiency, and also apply this to the specifics of Hawaiʻiʻs situation. In what ways is the consumer-citizen identity useful compared to producer identities found in Hawaiian food activist rhetoric, for example?

There is probably more work out there about immigrant assimilation to American culture and how food is entwined with that.

There are probably more eloquent sources out there that articulate from a Native Hawaiian perspective the importance of rural lifestyles, agriculture, and particular foods to Hawaiian identity.

There might be more sources out there that either support or critique the notion that the consumption of industrial foods like SPAM can be seen as a culturally resistant move.