Chinese garlic and seafood at US military bases? Republicans think that stinks

WASHINGTON — U.S. military service members may soon find garlic and seafood from China stripped off the shelves of their local military commissaries, in a move led by three Senate Republicans.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., put Chinese garlic on the military’s chopping block. He, along with Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Fla, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., also want Chinese seafood tossed overboard.

The Senate’s fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, includes provisions that would declare war on all Chinese garlic fronts: fresh, chilled, frozen, dried, dehydrated, prepared by vinegar or acetic acid, or pressed into oil.

The bill would also reel in any raw or processed seafood or seafood products from China from commissary shelves or military dining facilities, including galleys aboard U.S. naval vessels.

“This is simple — I don’t believe that our servicemen and women should be eating food from Communist China grown in human feces and sewer water,” Scott said in a statement about the garlic ban.

“These provisions in the NDAA ensure our service members and their families can trust that the products they’re buying on base are completely healthy and safe to put on their tables,” he said.

Scott sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo in December 2023 requesting a food safety and national security investigation into all Chinese garlic imports. The department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

His letter said growth practices in China are “well documented” on YouTube and in documentaries.

“These practices include such offenses as fertilizing garlic with human feces and forms of sewage, growing garlic in sewage, bleaching garlic to make it appear whiter and cleaner to the eye after its growth in unsanitary conditions,” he wrote.

A 2017 report from McGill University in Montreal said there is “no evidence that garlic in China is fertilized in this fashion.”

The garlic and seafood prohibitions would reduce duties collected by Customs and Border Protection by $5 million over the 2025-2034 period, the Congressional Budget Office said in its cost estimate for the defense policy bill.

The senators are also pushing to ban Chinese garlic and seafood in the U.S. altogether.

Scott introduced a bill in January, dubbed the “SEWAGE GARLIC Imports Act,” that would extend the ban’s reach to civilians.

Cotton sponsored, and Scott and Hyde-Smith co-sponsored, a bill in December 2023 that would prohibit Chinese seafood and aquaculture imports to the U.S. altogether.

“Fishing and aquaculture is yet another industry the Chinese Communist Party is weaponizing for their own gain through blatant abuse and slave labor,” said Cotton in a statement at the time. “This legislation will stop imports of this illicit seafood by imposing real costs on the Chinese government and the companies that aid them.”

Hyde-Smith, who is on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in the release: “It’s past time we hold China accountable for its persistent violation of sovereign waters and its shameless use of slave labor to dominate the aquaculture market with unsafe, chemical-ridden products.”

Cotton and Hyde-Smith didn’t respond to requests for comment.