Day 158 - 19 Jul 95 - Page 34
1 if I can hand this up. (Handed) Pages 31 to 33. Shall
2 I take you to what I think the relevant bits are?
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is it just page 32, lines 7 to 16?
5
6 MR. MORRIS: Well, it is page 31, 9 to 16.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: Then it is page 32, 7 to 20.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: It is page 32, 38 to 49. I think that is really
15 the main -- it is possibly also, if it makes any
16 difference, page 33, lines 33 to 36.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which page?
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20 MR. MORRIS: 33, lines 33 to 46.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: The effect of that, in fact, we would argue, is
25 stronger than what we have written in the amended pleading,
26 which is that the policy from Mr. Gomez Gonzalez -- who,
27 I believe, is international marketing director, or meat
28 purchasing director; I cannot remember exactly -- was that
29 it was basically fair game to use beef raised on land,
30 effectively, that had been rain forest up to the minute
31 that McDonald's opened up in a particular country, and that
32 any forest destroyed after that, they would put a ring
33 fence round, which would mean in the Brazilian case that
34 any land destroyed before 1979 could be quite happily
35 available to McDonald's from thereonafter; that they would
36 not reject a consignment from such land.
37
38 As we have heard, there was possibly -- I cannot remember
39 what the exact reference is, but certainly -- well, as we
40 have said in the pleading, 1966 to 1975 was a substantial
41 time of both rain forest and tropical forest destruction,
42 and the responsibility of cattle ranching for it was highly
43 significant.
44
45 Can I just add that the colonisation in that sentence in
46 our pleading, "a further 30 per cent by way of
47 colonisation", if we look to the evidence from our witness
48 Mr. Monbiot, is that the colonisation is a cause of
49 rain forest -- is caused by, the principal cause of
50 colonisation into the Amazon is from cattle ranching
51 outside the Amazon. So the colonisation mention is
52 something which McDonald's have a responsibility -- have
53 aided it, which is why it was specifically mentioned. We
54 do not mention the timber industry; it was not relevant to
55 that pleading. I think that deals with our entire
56 submission.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just let us look a moment, because you have
59 concentrated on paragraph 1, first of all.
60
