Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 25
1 down, however they are cut down. And although it is our
2 case that the enormous destruction of tropical forests has
3 been caused by the global demand, especially in the USA for
4 hamburgers in particular, of which McDonald's is the number
5 one culprit for creating such a demand and promoting and
6 satisfying a demand, that it is also damaging that
7 McDonald's are using the beef within countries with
8 rainforests in their local stores.
9
10 So the sting of this section is not whether or not who
11 exported to whom and when, although that is part of it; it
12 is also the local usage as well even though McDonald's are
13 responsible for exports of beef to the USA and elsewhere,
14 because whether or not they themselves directly use that
15 beef, which it is our case that they do, as a statistical
16 inevitability and other evidence, but whether or not that
17 he do is immaterial, whether they use it directly, because
18 they are stimulating that demand which has to be satisfied
19 one way or another.
20
21 Just to emphasise, it is clear to us in that sentence that
22 the burgers relate to McDonald's - this is the McDonald's
23 and Burger King sentence - that they create grazing
24 pastures for cattle to be sent back to the States as
25 burgers, is what relates to McDonald's. And then it says
26 and pet food and to provide fast food packaging materials,
27 and that section would relate to the other of the many US
28 corporations referred to.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But does not fast food packaging refer to
31 McDonald's as well?
32
33 MR. MORRIS: Not in terms of the Central American connection,
34 no.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you say that? I am not looking at
37 the facts now and what the evidence is, but what the
38 meaning of the leaflet is. I can take your point about
39 since it mentions many corporations and the reader might
40 not associate pet food with McDonald's; then I can see that
41 your argument that pet food would not be taken to refer to
42 McDonald's. Whether it is right or not, I am not giving
43 any indication of.
44
45 But just as I would have thought the reader would associate
46 burgers with McDonald's, among others, as you accept,
47 I would have thought the reader would associate fast food
48 packaging materials with McDonald's, among others.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Well, we do not think that that necessarily
51 follows, because obviously the reference to pet food means
52 that we are talking about the general usage of Central
53 American resources as exports by many US corporations. And
54 the fact that McDonald's might use fast food packaging
55 materials does not mean to say that they are using those
56 from Central America, whereas the claim about the cattle is
57 absolutely clear, create grazing pastures for cattle.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, there we are.
60
