Day 287 - 25 Oct 96 - Page 12
1 deforestation. The last point I have to make on this
2 point, and I will not refer to it, I will not read out any
3 sections, is the Civil Evidence Act notice statement of
4 Ronald Cummins for the defence about the Guatemala and
5 Costa Rica beef industry and international global
6 considerations, and this goes towards the both our
7 rainforest case and the economic imperialism issue and how
8 the fast food US multi-nationals are an essential part of
9 the causation of problems in Central America. That was
10 based upon five years of sustained travel and research in
11 Mexico, Central America between 1983 and 1993.
12
13 If I can actually say one point; that Mr. Cummins, at the
14 end of his statement, makes some positive proposals for
15 what fast food multi-nationals like McDonald's and
16 Burger King could and would do if they were concerned about
17 the effects on the environment and social problems in
18 Central and Latin America, and it is part of our whole
19 approach to this case that not only are we arguing for
20 positive alternatives but obviously any intermediary
21 improvements would be a good thing as well. That is the
22 end of that one. What I have to say about Guatemala.
23
24 MR JUSTICE BELL: Right. We will take the five minute break
25 there, and if you can get through the rest before one
26 o'clock, well and good.
27
28 MR. MORRIS: Yes, we will do our best. Hopefully, if I am
29 nearly finished it might be better to stay on to quarter
30 past.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not sure I can, I have someone coming to
33 see me at one o'clock.
34
35 MR. MORRIS: I will do my best.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, what I was going to do, if there was
38 time before one o'clock and in case you were seeing someone
39 in any event to get some legal advice, and as Ms. Steel
40 said she is going to start on animals on Monday, I wrote
41 out a note which might be helpful to you. What I will do,
42 we must only have a five minute break now, so I suggest
43 you, Mr. Morris, get the note for the time being. You may
44 have time to talk about it before one o'clock, but I will
45 ask Mr. Glenn to hand three copies to you and Ms. Steel and
46 three copies to Mr. Rampton. We may come back to it if we
47 have time before one o'clock.
48
49 (Short Adjournment)
50
51 MR. MORRIS: Just before going to soya, one other thing.
52 Mr. Cesca, day 222, page 38 was asked about the, what we
53 would say, completely inadequate series of letters
54 regarding Costa Rica and exports from.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 37 and 28?
57
58 MR. MORRIS: 37 and 38. The letters about export to the USA.
59 If I just flag that up. Obviously, we would say, I have
60 made the general point about soya. As we have seen,
