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01_The Bittersweet Harvest:
Navigating Manhattan Chinatown's Changing Produce Network
SPRING / 2023
For Colloquium III: Design in Action
Advised by Laura Kurgan
Quoted the by Washington Post
Featured on SLAB’s TCT
Recieved an Honor Award from GSAPP
I live on Mott & Grand, above the hustle and bustle of Chinatown’s produce markets. Impressively, the small-scale, low-tech vendors are able to sell diverse, fresh produce at a cost significantly lower than any other grocers. What enables this is a system of decentralized, clustered, and globally networked produce suppliers.
For decades, small-scale produce wholesalers in Chinatown have been connecting farmers and distributors with consumers, creating a food landscape that has become a cornerstone of the community. From fresh produce to specialty herbal medicine, the network plays a critical role in ensuring that local residents have access to healthy, affordable, and culturally sensitive food options. The benefits extend beyond just the local community; by supporting small-scale farmers and distributors, the network has helped build a more resilient and sustainable food system for many.
Yet, this remarkable network has been understudied (the last holistic research conducted was in 2005 by Dr. Valerie Imbruce ) overshadowed by Hunts Point Terminal, and overlooked by advocates of farmers markets. Our current culture around data means systems that evade quickness and bigness, such as Chinatown’s analog operations, become trapped in a feedback loop of being understudied, underrepresented, and undersupported. I thus frame the project as a form of archival advocacy – to capture and record this network to raise its visibility and build support.
Through mapping, web-scrapping, and ethnography, I merge a quantitive time series that points to a decline and shrinkage in the network with an oral history of immigrant hardship, tenacity, and the desire for change. It sheds light on the unique challenges faced by Chinatown’s immigrant businesses and the ways in which they adapt.
The research also offers several valuable lessons for food systems planning today and dismantles many of the binary notions used to understand these systems. By understanding Chinatown Produce Network, we can also evaluate the potential for similar networks in other parts of the city.
View full project here →
