How Asian American Farmers Helped Shape U.S. Agriculture

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage (AAPI) Month and to honor this history, we wanted to trace the positive contributions, and the tumultuous past, of Asian American farmers who have played a crucial role in building the foundation of America’s agricultural landscape and have helped shape what Arizona grows today. 

Snapshot of Asian American Farmers in the United States 

According to the last U.S. Census of Agriculture conducted in 2017, Asian Americans made up less than one percent of the farming population but have contributed immensely to what and how we grow today. The United States had 25,310 producers who identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with another race in 2017. These farmers accounted for between 0.6 to 0.7 percent of the country’s 3.4 million producers.

These numbers are a stark contrast to the 19th and 20th centuries when Asian American farmers were abundant and incredibly productive in agriculture. In 1848, The Gold Rush attracted an influx of immigrants; and by 1890, Chinese immigrants made up 75 percent of California's agriculture workers. Beginning in 1852, a large number of Chinese people were recruited to work on sugar and rice plantations in Hawaii. By 1887, over 50,000 Chinese laborers had arrived to work on the plantations under contract. After their contracts ended, about two-thirds decided to stay in Hawaii permanently. They soon transitioned to raising livestock or growing rice, taro, coffee, vegetables, and fruits.

One of the first groups of Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1868 after being recruited by American growers to work on sugar and pineapple plantations. Japanese-American farmers were also a significant presence on the pre-war West Coast, producing more than 40 percent of California's commercial vegetable crop.

After new Chinese immigrants were suspended from entering the United States for 10 years and declared ineligible for US citizenship as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese, Filipino, Sikh, Punjabi, and Korean immigrants — many of them farmers — helped replace the labor shortage and expanded America’s agriculture industry along the West Coast and in Hawaii, as well as organized farm unions.

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Agricultural Knowledge of Asian American Farmers

The influx of Asian American farmers dramatically changed the landscape of U.S. agriculture— they introduced new farming techniques and diversified the types of crops being grown in the country. 

Many early Chinese immigrants were from the Pearl River Delta region of China, near the city of Taishan, and brought a deep agricultural knowledge in irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilization. By 1880, Chinese farmers had reclaimed 88,000 acres from California’s Sacramento River Delta marshlands for agricultural production—notably developing the “Asparagus Capital of the World” and becoming a major source of Bartlett pears. Prior to their arrival, California relied heavily on agriculture imports from China, Australia, Chile, and Hawaii to meet the food demands of a fast-growing population. Chinese immigrants joined the farming workforce to harvest wheat crops and grow fruits, vegetables, and nuts. They played an instrumental role in turning California into an agricultural powerhouse.

Chinese immigrants also helped to establish the foundation of the Californian wine industry in Napa and Sonoma by building roads, stone bridges, rock walls, wine cellars, and irrigation ditches. Between 1856 and 1869, Chinese workers planted the majority of Sonoma County's 3.2 million grapevines. It is estimated that viticulture in California would have been set back 30 to 50 years without the contribution of Chinese vineyard workers.

Japanese-American farmers were actively engaged in agriculture in the Pacific Coast region. By 1940, nearly half of the Japanese American workforce engaged in growing intensive crops on the West Coast contributed to 40 percent of California's specialty produce—helping to shift the state from its dependence on corn and grain to a diversified group of vegetables and fruit crops. California acreage data from 1979 shows that wheat and barley were grown on over 75 percent of the state’s cropland and only five percent total for intensive, specialty crop production. By 1929, the agricultural scene had changed dramatically. Wheat and barley then contributed to only 26 percent of the cropland harvested and the intensive, specialty crop share had increased to 35 percent. Japanese-American farmers were highly productive—the average value per acre of all West Coast farms in 1940 was $37.94, whereas that of Japanese farms was $279.96, something that would prove to be a threat to other Eurocentric farmers.

Xenophobia and the Prohibition of Owning Land

As newly constructed railroad lines brought cheap manufactured goods and unemployed European immigrants from the East Coast, an economic depression began in the West, and  Chinese Americans were made scapegoats. During this period, white mobs destroyed Chinese communities throughout the West. Most Chinese farmworkers, who comprised 75 percent of California’s agricultural workers in 1890, were expelled. 

While Chinese Americans were well represented in agriculture in the early decades of immigration, their involvement in agriculture began to decline after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which severely limited employment opportunities in the industry. The Act specifically prohibited entry into the U.S. for Chinese immigrants seeking to work in construction, farming, and mining. Chinese American representation in those occupations declined drastically after the passage of the Act. 

This decline later intensified when the California Alien Land Law in 1913 prohibited “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning or leasing land until the law was declared unconstitutional in 1952. Between 1920 and 1930, alone, Japanese-owned farmland dropped by more than 40 percent.

After the 1942 Japan attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and successive war hysteria—coupled with long-standing anti-Asian racism—President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and Executive Order 9102. These Orders granted authority for the expedited forced removal of Japanese Americans from their land and homes—with only 48-hours notice or threat of a one-year prison term and a $5,000 fine for not complying—and imprisonment in “relocation centers” or detainment camps. The U.S. War Department selected the Gila River Indian Community and the Colorado River Indian Community, both reservations in Arizona, as sites for two of the 10 camps.

During the following six months, over 120,000 men, women, and children were forcibly removed from areas in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona; and 70,000 of the evacuees were American citizens. The government made no charges against them nor could they appeal their incarceration. Some were even drafted and served during WWII in segregated units. Following the imprisonment and war, many Japanese Americans had to completely start over in building their businesses and livelihoods—after being made to hastily sell off properties or return to destroyed property. 

Asian American Farmers in Arizona

As the railroad construction expanded westward, Chinese immigrants first arrived in Phoenix in the 1870s to work as laborers. By 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed and Japanese immigrants would replace the needed labor left by the Chinese, especially in the field of agriculture. Near the turn of the 20th century, Japanese laborers were also brought to Arizona by the Southwest Sugar and Land Company to help build a sugar beet farm in the Salt River Valley. The crop did not thrive due to the heat, and many Japanese farmers left the state by 1915. The ones that stayed were mainly farmers and established the first Japanese community in Phoenix. 

 
 

Despite racial violence and the World War II internment camps of the 1940s, Japanese farmers continued to arrive in Arizona, such as Kajuro Kishiyama and his family who immigrated in 1928. Kishiyama farmed tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, and watermelons and was dubbed the “Tomato King” by locals. Kishiyama’s success, however, threatened his landlord who evicted the family and confiscated their crops, forcing them to find new land. Undeterred, Kajuro Kishiyama relocated his family to the base of South Mountain in 1936 and began again.

Three years after Kishiyama began farming at the foot of South Mountain, another prominent Japanese farming family, the Nakagawa’s, and several other neighbors started successfully growing large flower fields. For many long-time residents of Phoenix or those that toured the area from the 1960s through the 1980s, they might recall the colorful rows of flowers lining the base of South Mountain grown by these Japanese families. 

In 1942, the Kishiyamas, Nakagawas, and other local Japanese Americans were interned in the Gila River Internment Camp in southern Arizona due to Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese Americans to sell or abandon their land and possessions and report to a government internment camp. When the farmers were released and permitted to return to their farms at the end of World War II, they found their land destroyed and were forced to start over. By the 1950s, however, their flower farms were thriving once again.

What happened to the Japanese flower gardens in South Phoenix? A 2016 Arizona Republic article, written by the daughter of Nick Nakagawa, one of the first Japanese flower farmers in Arizona and owner of Baseline Flowers, documented the story of the farmers who created the gardens and what eventually happened to the acres of farmland that once colored the otherwise desert terrain of South Phoenix. Like many farming stories, the children of these farmers decided to pursue their careers instead of staying and maintaining the farm. The land was progressively sold to developers and in 2005, the last of the “Japanese Flower Garden” farmland was sold to a home developer. Baseline Flowers, is the only flower shop left that carries the legacy of the flower gardens. Nick Nakagawa ran it for decades until he died last year; and now, his daughter, Arizona State University professor Kathy Nakagawa, has taken over the shop to keep the story alive (hear the story here).

Today, the number of Asian farmers documented as farmers in Arizona is small compared to other races. According to the Arizona 2017 Census of Agriculture, of the 19,000 farms that were documented, only 80 farms had a principal producer that identified as Asian. Additionally, the cannon of research and articles highlighting other Asian nationalities and their impact on local agriculture is sparse. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean they don’t exist in the local food landscape. Some local Asian American farmers and growers that are in the space include Wong’s Farm, Singh Farms, Oatman Ranch, Baseline Flowers, Southwest Black Ranchers, Moon River Beef, and BKW Farms. Backyard gardeners and farm homesteads are also present in the foodscape where traditional Asian vegetables, herbs, and edible trees are grown for their families and communities. 

The Next Generation of Asian American Farmers

To address years of discriminatory agriculture practices and laws that resulted in socioeconomic inequities that are still being experienced today, many Asian American farmers today are reclaiming their agricultural roots and culture by growing traditional food. Organizations such as Los Angeles-based Food Roots connects local and sustainably grown Asian specialty foods to communities and businesses in the greater Los Angeles area while supporting and sourcing from farmers of color, especially within the Asian American community, such as Hmong, Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Chinese, and South Asian farmers.

In Minnesota, the Hmong American Farmers Association was formed in 2011 to support Hmong American farmers that make up more than 50% of all the farmers in metropolitan farmers markets. Hmong refugees began resettling as political refugees from Laos and Thailand to Minnesota in the 1970s after the Vietnam War. Many families relied on their agricultural heritage to make a living by growing produce and flowers for local farmers markets. These farmers revitalized the Saint Paul and Minneapolis farmers market and transformed them into some of the most vibrant markets in the country by introducing Asian herbs and vegetables, such as Thai chili peppers and Chinese bok choy. 

Like many in the BIPOC community who are reclaiming their connection to the land, the renaissance of small farms growing traditional crops is an act of healing and honoring seeds of the past. The next generation of Asian American farmers are elevating their ancestors’ silenced voices and cultivating rows of their heritage—through agriculture.

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