East Asian food regimes: agrarian warriors, edamame beans and spatial topologies of food regimes in East Asia

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning body of work thinking differently about food regimes. Drawing on the concepts of a corporate food regime and a corporate-environmental food regime, this paper highlights the constituent parts of East Asian food regimes, addressing the food regime transition that has taken place in the region. The first part of the paper addresses the role played by agrarian-scientific institutions in this transition; specifically, it investigates the spatial topologies, political economy, histories and socio-cultural contexts of agrarian knowledge production and practices that have conditioned East Asia’s transition to a corporate-environmental food regime. The second part offers an analysis of a specific food commodity – edamame beans – to illustrate how East Asian food regimes have changed as they have been incorporated into a corporate-environmental food regime. In investigating the evolution of edamame production and trade, I analyze how edamame production and trade has been reorganized under this new regime. My study argues that broadening the conversation about the food regimes approach requires a regional-geographic perspective in order to understand the spatial topologies, uneven development and socio-cultural-ecological differentiation characteristic of food regimes.

Keywords:

• agrarian-scientific institution
• corporate-environmental food regime
• East Asian food regime
• edamame

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Buck, Dr. Bryna Goodman, Dr. Alexander Murphy, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. A draft of this paper was presented at the 2016 NW China Forum in Seattle, WA, and I appreciate the comments from participants at the conference. All errors are the sole responsibility of the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Edamame is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod, found in the cuisine of Asian-Pacific countries. The pods are boiled or steamed and garnished with salt. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other state and local government statistics, Japan, Taiwan and China place edamame in the category of frozen vegetable rather than in the category of soybean, due to the differences in usage and consumption patterns. Accordingly, my study focuses more on the archives and statistics related to frozen vegetables and less on those related to the soybean.

2 The term ‘拓士’ means settler or pioneer. Because of their unique agricultural mission and training in the Pacific War, this study uses the term ‘agricultural settler’ to emphasize their special position.

3 Including the University of Wisconsin, the University of Hawaii, the University of Florida and Cornell University. Author interview with Dennis Gonsalves, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at Cornell University, July 2014.

4 Author interview with Mr. C.C. Tsai, President of Tai Mei Food Co., Ltd., July 2014.

5 Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation and Interchange Association of Japan are two of the main organizations providing scholarships for Taiwanese students to study in Japan.

6 This is a database maintained by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The database collects agro-trade data from 1986 to 2013.

7 Author interview with Mr. C.C. Tsai, President of Tai Mei Food Co., Ltd., July 2014.

8 Author interview with Mr. C.C. Tsai, President of Tai Mei Food Co., Ltd., July 2014; author interview with Mrs. Mei-Su Huang Liao, Vegetable Processing Plant Owner, Donghai Frozen Foods Co., Ltd., July 2015; author interview with Mr. Kuei-Ping Liu, President of Young Sun Frozen Food Co., Ltd., Oct 2016.

9 Author interview with Mr. Kuei-Ping Liu, President of Young Sun Frozen Food Co., Ltd, Oct 2016.

10 Author interview with Mrs. Na-Na Liu, Assistant Manager of Young Tern International Trading Co., Ltd, and Mrs. Katsube Yukiko, Acting Manager of Maruha Nichiro Corporation, Oct 2016.

11 Author interview with Mr. Kuo-Lung Chou, Director of Crop Improvement Section, Kaohsiung Agricultural Research and Extension Station, June 2013.

12 Author interview with Mrs. Na-Na Liu, Assistant Manager of Young Tern International Trading Co., Ltd, and Mrs. Katsube Yukiko, Acting Manager of Maruha Nichiro Corporation, Oct 2016.

13 Author interview with Mr. Kuei-Ping Liu, President of Young Sun Frozen Food Co., Ltd, Oct 2016.

14 Chinese and Western cuisines were embedded in the process of building Japan's food identity, which developed gradually during and after WWII and into the 1980s. During the postwar period, Japanese-Western and Japanese-Chinese cuisines were integrated into the hierarchy of the Japanese food industry and acquired positions as components of the Japanese national cuisine. However, since then, Japanese consumers have categorized Chinese food as being of inferior quality and having an unpleasant flavor. These perceptions have been heavily influenced by unsanitary dining environments. Easily can find reports and critiques of poison found in Chinese food by reading local newspapers in Japan.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this contribution was made possible with generous funding provided by the Geography Department, the Food Studies Program, and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Oregon; the Association for Asian Studies China-Inner Asia Council; the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies; and the Political Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers, American Association of Geographers [Dissertation Enhancement Award, Political Geography]; American Council of Learned Societies [Predissertation Grants]; Association for Asian Studies [Predissertation-Summer Grant.]

Notes on contributors

Kuan-chi Wang

Kuan-chi Wang is a PhD candidate in the Geography Department at the University of Oregon. His current theoretical interests include critical geopolitics, environmental governance and politics, new economic geography, and geospatial modeling with a focus on East Asian foodways, in particular high-value vegetables and fruits.