Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 44
1 sensibly treated together because they all arise out of the
2 same point, which is cattle ranching.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Right, yes.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I say all. They both, the two heads.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: Yes. So I will not go into meanings at this
9 stage. I think that me and Helen might have to have a chat
10 about that subject.
11
12 Regarding the policy matter, policy, McDonald's have
13 claimed policy. Edward Oakley - and I cannot give you the
14 references now but I am going to go away and get the
15 references to any point I bring up now - but Edward Oakley,
16 senior vice president and chief purchasing officer, I
17 believe for Northern Europe, claimed McDonald's have a
18 consciousness of environmental considerations and referred
19 to the company's environmental task force and the corporate
20 policy on the subject.
21
22 He stated he did not know when the policy was published but
23 had seen it, quote, on a wall, unquote, at the head
24 office. He said the policy, quote, had not had a direct
25 effect on the purchasing department, unquote, but, quote,
26 it certainly did on the communications department. I think
27 that this is a very revealing admission about the purpose,
28 the major purpose, if not the only purpose, there are many
29 examples, of having a policy, that it affects the PR
30 department more than the relevant departments such as
31 purchasing.
32
33 Moving on to tropical forests, commonly known as
34 rainforests, we have heard about the global promotion by
35 McDonald's of beef consumption, huge advertising budget,
36 and the world's largest user of beef, and that the damage
37 that cattle ranching has unquestionably inflicted on
38 tropical forests recognised that as far back as 1982, in
39 that letter which I mentioned before, that they have
40 publicly stated they have never used any meat from cattle
41 raised in former rainforests. And they have stated that a
42 number of times, in solicitors' letters, public leaflets,
43 wherever. And it is a lie.
44
45 Now, coming to the policy on rainforests, claimed policy on
46 rainforests, Ray Cesca, director of global purchasing and
47 worldwide trade of the corporation, gave evidence that he
48 drafted the rainforest policy statements. He said that the
49 policy not to use ex-rainforest or recently deforested
50 rainforest land had taken four to six weeks to write, in
51 1989, although he claimed it had existed "verbally" since
52 the company opened its first store in 1955 -- which we
53 would say is completely ludicrous and absurd, that they had
54 no policy about rainforests when they opened their first
55 store in 1955. He said that: "Recently deforested
56 rainforests means since we decided to open a restaurant in
57 a specific country", and agreed with Mr. Rampton QC that,
58 in theory, some rainforests might be cut down a year or six
59 months before McDonald's made that decision to move into a
60 country, put cattle on it, and McDonald's could, in theory,
