Ext: general view.

On the sidewalks of Manhattan's Chinatown, you can find street vendors and greengrocers selling bright red litchis in the summer and mustard greens and bok choy no matter the season. The neighborhood supplies more than two hundred distinct varieties of fruits and vegetables that find their way onto the tables of immigrants and other New Yorkers from many walks of life. Chinatown may seem to be a unique ethnic enclave, but it is by no means isolated. It has been shaped by free trade and by American immigration policies that characterize global economic integration. In From Farm to Canal Street, Valerie Imbruce tells the story of how Chinatown's food network operates amid—and against the grain of—the global trend to consolidate food production and distribution. Manhattan’s Chinatown demonstrates how a local market can influence agricultural practices, food distribution, and consumer decisions on a very broad scale.Imbruce recounts the development of Chinatown’s food network to include farmers from multimillion-dollar farms near the Everglades Agricultural Area and tropical "homegardens" south of Miami in Florida and small farms in Honduras. Although hunger and nutrition are key drivers of food politics, so are jobs, culture, neighborhood quality, and the environment. Imbruce focuses on these four dimensions and proposes policy prescriptions for the decentralization of food distribution, the support of ethnic food clusters, the encouragement of crop diversity in agriculture, and the cultivation of equity and diversity among agents in food supply chains. Imbruce features farmers and brokers whose life histories illuminate the desires and practices of people working in a niche of the global marketplace.

Rich in Native American and Revolutionary War history, New York State’s Leatherstocking Country is a hiker’s paradise, blessed with a scenic rural landscape and abundant flora and fauna. Longtime central New York residents and avid hikers Bill and Eileen Bowers guide you through some of the best hiking opportunities in central New York, from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and the Syracuse region to the Southern Tier, the northern Catskills, the Erie Canalway Trail, and much more. The hikes in this addition to in Countryman’s acclaimed Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes series range in length and difficulty from half-mile nature trails suitable for families with children to strenuous daylong treks across rough terrain. A “Hikes at a Glance” table makes it easy to choose hikes for every interest and ability level. Each hike description includes mile-by-mile directions, information on hiking time, mileage, and trail conditions, as well as knowledgeable commentary on the natural and human history you’ll encounter along the way.