Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 28
1 I will look again at what Professor Hecht said, that
2 evidence about cattle are trucked any distance, for
3 fattening or any other purpose, in these countries.
4 I have just got to look at such conflict there is and see
5 which I prefer.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Well, I am going to come on to that
8 anyway. I would say that the only experts called relevant
9 to Brazil are our experts. They did not call any, which
10 is their - they do not have a case, I do not think, to
11 challenge ours.
12
13 So, I am asking, do they understand what their suppliers
14 are actually doing, McDonald's? This is an important
15 point. Dr. Gonzalez was not even aware that McDonald's in
16 the US use frozen beef raw material in the production of
17 their patties. That was on day 68, page 16, line 17. He
18 drew all sorts of conclusions based upon that complete
19 misunderstanding and lack of knowledge which was directly
20 contradicted by Ray Cesca. He had even said that he had
21 visited eighty percent of McDonald's supply plants in the
22 States.
23
24 So, not only did he not know about this, but he did not
25 even recognise the purpose of the machinery and we could
26 only conclude it was either deliberately misleading the
27 court in order to avoid a conclusion about the capability
28 of using imported beef or he just is completely unaware of
29 what is going on in the supply chain even at that first
30 stage, which is the process plants. If we look at
31 Mr. Cesca, Mr. Cesca claimed to have... Well, he was the
32 plaintiffs' case, effectively, on this subject of -- well,
33 him and Mr. Gonzales, I suppose -- beef supplies in
34 Central and Latin America, Costa Rica and Brazil in
35 particular, and Guatemala, and he did not even know that
36 McDonald's manufacturing plant in Costa Rica was based at
37 Alajuela in the central zone, not where the slaughter
38 house was based. Not only did he not know, he testified
39 to the opposite, despite being challenged on it and given
40 every opportunity to consider and rack his brains. He had
41 been there, I think he said, something like twenty times
42 or something, that is from memory.
43
44 Now, he either does not know what is going on or he was
45 hiding that fact because it is part of the jigsaw of the
46 case on McDonald's in Costa Rica.
47
48 MR JUSTICE BELL: Explain what is sinister about that. Why
49 should he want to say it is not done there when it is?
50 What is sinister about it being done there? I say
51 'sinister', I mean, because this is a question in my
52 mind. Suppose he is wrong about that, where does it take
53 you that it was done there rather than anywhere else?
54
55 MR. MORRIS: For a start that suppliers had to be brought in
56 especially to that plant in Alajuela. Mr. Wolf testified
57 that they got their supplies, that plant process plant got
58 their supplies, at the local market, which would take beef
59 from all over the country. But...
60
