Day 158 - 19 Jul 95 - Page 49
1
2 So far as Vesty is concerned, that was one occasion in
3 1983, a very small quantity of beef exported to this
4 country. In that case, the plant is at Barretos and,
5 according to Lord Vesty's letter, if it is to be believed,
6 and at the moment it is not evidence, came from three
7 grazing areas of the country, the Mato Grosso, Goias and
8 Minas something or other, Minas it is on my map.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: And the flood plains of River Paraguay.
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12 MR. RAMPTON: And the flood plains of the River Paraguay. He
13 says that none of those grazing areas is more than or he
14 may say they were all -- I will actually look at it so
15 I get it right; my Lord, it is 13A of that tab we have been
16 looking at -- no, he is stronger actually than what I was
17 about to say. He says all the areas are well within 1,000
18 kilometres of Barretos. That is on that one occasion.
19 When your Lordship sees my map, you will see how far from
20 Barretos 1,000 kilometres is.
21
22 Dealing with the Vesty beef in 1983, even assuming that
23 Mr. Morris was right that some part of that grazing land,
24 perhaps in the Mato Grosso, had at some time been
25 rain forest -- certainly, there is no material to suggest
26 that it was at the time concerned which was 1983 -- even
27 supposing that he had been right about that, and there is
28 no sensible material to suggest that he is, first, there is
29 no direct evidence at the moment as to when that area or
30 those areas were last rain forest as opposed to some other
31 kind of dry or scrub forest as, for example, Buenacasti in
32 Costa Rica. Second, it was one occasion, a small quantity
33 of beef in 1983.
34
35 Putting those two facts together, the Vesty incident, if
36 I can call it that, cannot conceivably provide any basis
37 for an allegation that McDonald's activities in this
38 country, because it concerns only the export of beef to
39 this country, are even remotely responsible for causing
40 damage to the environment in Brazil or to the social
41 conditions of the people in Brazil.
42
43 It is a small, compartmentalized incident which took place
44 on a small scale a very long time ago, and there is no
45 material available to ground a belief that it has happened
46 more often than that. So, my Lord, I put Vesty entirely on
47 one side.
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49 I now pass up, if I may -- I have one for the Defendants --
50 it has a key. I am afraid it is a bit messy. What I have
51 done is to draw circumferences and various radii. I have
52 drawn the southern border of the rain forest,
53 Amazonian forest, following the Braslo map which has been
54 verified by Dr. Gomez Gonzales.
55
56 For present purposes, all that matters is what reasonable
57 grounds for belief are there that there is a case or there
58 is not a case to be made by this pleading? I have marked
59 in yellow the Vesty grazing areas and, of course, that is
60 very rough. The River Paraguay is just to the right of the
