Products from paradise: The social construction of Hawaii crops

Krisnawati Suryanata

Agriculture and Human Values, 2000, vol. 17, issue 2, 189 pages

Abstract: Global competition has made thetraditional sugarcane and pineapple industriesincreasingly non-viable in Hawaii. One initiative torevive the agricultural sector calls for diversifyinginto non-traditional export crops that gains highervalue by attaching the paradise identity such as freshpineapples, macadamia nuts, or tropical flowers.Drawing from cases of pineapples and macadamia nuts,this paper examines how Hawaii's foodstuffs were ableto capture a premium value of place-association due tothe social construction of Hawaii as a place. Anexpansion of the niche markets, however, has allowedthe symbolic meaning of these products to beappropriated and reconstituted by global interests.Without confronting the fundamental problemsassociated with land and labor relations in Hawaii,Hawaii producers are caught in a niche-markettreadmill. They continuously seek new potentials forhigh-value crops, but are unable to maintain controlbeyond their inventive stage. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000

Keywords: Global restructuring; Hawaii; Macadamia nuts; Niche markets; Pineapples; Social construction of food; Trans-national corporations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1023/A:1007617403517

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