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

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