‘Growing in sewage water’: Chinese garlic being called a ‘national security threat’ in the US
Imports of Chinese garlic into the United States have been concerned and it has been claimed that it poses a threat to national security.
A US senator has called on the government to investigate the national security implications of importing garlic from China.
Republican Senator Rick Scott has written to the Secretary of Commerce claiming that Chinese garlic is unsafe. They claim that this garlic is grown in dirty ways.
China is the world’s largest exporter of garlic and the United States is its largest consumer.
The US has been accusing China of selling garlic to the US at very low prices.
Since the mid-1990s, the United States has imposed heavy tariffs or taxes on many Chinese goods to protect American farmers from the impact of lower-priced goods on the market.
The tariff was further increased in 2019 under the Trump administration.
What is the senator’s claim?
The American senator expressed concern in his letter and wrote that there are serious health concerns for the American public regarding the quality of garlic grown abroad, especially garlic grown in Communist China.
In the letter, he claims about the methods by which garlic is being grown. They say how to grow them is documented in online videos, cooking blogs and documentaries.
Also, a US senator has claimed that garlic is being grown in Savage water.
He has asked the Ministry of Commerce to take action on it. They have called for an investigation under the law into whether the importation of a particular item affects US security.
In addition, Senator Scott elaborated on the different types of garlic and said that they should also be looked at.
He wrote in the letter that all types of garlic, including whole or cloves, peeled, fresh, frozen, packed in water or otherwise, should be monitored.
What do scientists say?
“This is a food safety and security emergency that poses a serious threat to our national security, public health and economic prosperity,” the US senator argues.
The Office of Science and Society at McGill University in Quebec, which deals with scientific issues, says there is no evidence that sewage water is being used as fertilizer to grow garlic in China.
In 2017, the university published an article stating that there is no problem with using human waste as fertilizer.
Human waste also acts as an effective fertilizer like animal waste. It doesn’t look good to dump human waste on fields to grow crops, but it’s safer than you think.’