Hawaii: The Plantations and Ethnic Food

The food landscape of Hawaii began changing dramatically once the sugar plantations began to flourish following the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1876. The Hawaiian population (like so many after contact) had declined precipitously and the planters turned to wherever they could find labour. Substantial numbers of Chinese, Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Portuguese from the Atlantic Islands, and Filipinos arrived in the islands between the 1880s and the 1930s. By that time, the population was dominated by the Japanese. Each of these groups demanded their own food on the plantations. Small farms, market gardening, and fishing operations sprang up as well as enterprises to make saké, tofu, noodles, and other essentials. In the early years of the 20th century, rice was Hawaii’s third largest crop. The Japanese had largely taken over fishing from the Hawaiians.