Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 55
1 A. To a very limited extent. I assume you are referring
2 only to the feed lot operations, to the intensive
3 production?
4
5 Q. I do not know. You would have to tell me.
6 A. The majority of the cattle does not go through a feed
7 lot, and that is a common practice throughout the world.
8 Only a small proportion of those animals are selected to go
9 to a feed lot. So, let us say, we focus in the US, there
10 is an animal who is about two to three years old that has
11 spent that part of his life in an open pasture and he goes
12 to a feed lot for about 100 days. During those 100 days
13 they consume a very small amount of soya beans. In fact,
14 I just verified that. I call our suppliers and then ask
15 him to verify how much soyabeans are we using. This is
16 within the last week. None of the places that were
17 contacted were currently using soya bean; not that is
18 because it is bad, simply because it is not economically
19 feasible.
20
21 Q. Where did the soya beans which in small quantities, as you
22 said, are eaten by American cattle, where does that soya
23 meal come from?
24 A. In the US, it comes primary from a by-product of oil
25 extraction, so it is a soya bean paste that comes from
26 within the US.
27
28 Q. From within the US?
29 A. Most of it, yes.
30
31 Q. Do you know about the use of soya meal for the feeding of
32 cattle elsewhere in the world?
33 A. Very limited. Again, soya bean is expensive. I do not
34 know. In fact, I have not come across to anybody who has
35 used it.
36
37 Q. Do not worry about it; we have somebody who can deal with
38 it later on. I am going to leave cattle then, if I may,
39 and go on to pigs. Have you visited pig farms in the
40 United States?
41 A. Yes, I have.
42
43 Q. And elsewhere in the world?
44 A. Yes, I have.
45
46 Q. Do the conditions in which the pigs are bred and grown up
47 ready for slaughter vary in different countries?
48 A. Yes, you can make some generalisations but they vary
49 within the country and they vary within even a country.
50
51 Q. Do some of them grow up in the open air?
52 A. Open air?
53
54 Q. Yes, open air.
55 A. What do you mean, do they have access to fresh air?
56
57 Q. In a pen in a field or something like that?
58 A. Yes, they do -- they have to.
59
60 Q. And some in houses?
