Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 34


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Did Mr. Cesca say that about Costa Rica as
     3        well as Brazil?
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:   I do not think he said 'cuddly'.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Forget the 'cuddly'.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:   I think the impression...  I have not got the
    10        references that he tried to give the impression that he had
    11        visited some fairly small scale farms, not as small as
    12        those in Brazil, or something.  His evidence was that he
    13        had hardly visited any percentage of farms in Brazil or
    14        Costa Rica, he would only know they were supplying
    15        McDonald's from what he had been told anyway.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Anyway, what is your point?
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:   The point is, these are substantial, it shows that
    20        McDonald's -- I don't really know what it shows actually.
    21        It is, if they are trying to say that, Oh, they like to
    22        work with small farms-----
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am interested in what you are trying to say
    25        in relation to this.  Mr. Rampton will tell me what
    26        McDonald's are trying to say.  What are you trying to say?
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:   They are quite prepared to work with large scale
    29        ranches.  I mean, I think that -----
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Then where do I go from there?
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:   I don't know exactly, because Mr. Woolf was not
    34        aware of any supplies to the San Isidro region, for
    35        example, and I don't know where we go from there, really.
    36        It might be irrelevant anyway.  If I can just see if there
    37        is anything else I need to add about Costa Rica?
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, sit down and take stock.  (Pause)
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, there is.  There was a point I was going to
    42        make about Mr. Woolf, and indeed Co-op Montecillos.
    43        I think Mr. Woolf had worked for Gisa, I can't remember now
    44        if he still did, or what.  But in any case, Donald Monroe
    45        was a Civil Evidence Act notice witness from Gisa, from
    46        McDonald's.  And both Gisa and Co-op Montecillos are major
    47        exporters of beef from Costa Rica to the USA.
    48
    49        Therefore, the entire management of those companies are
    50        implicated in rainforest destruction, causally implicated 
    51        in that destruction, because of their company's 
    52        responsibility for causing, being part of, that chain of 
    53        causation by making profits out of supplying US companies
    54        with cheap imported beef.  Cheap, or whatever special
    55        qualities of their beef are.  They have an interest, not
    56        only in maintaining their supplies with McDonald's and
    57        therefore saying whatever suits McDonald's, but also with
    58        covering up the damage that their companies and their
    59        position is doing to the environment and related other
    60        effects.

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