Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 22
1 Rica, beef raised on areas of former tropical forest or
2 rainforest or both, depending on whose definitions. But
3 another indication of the unreliability of suppliers is
4 that McDonald's, because of criticism from Prince Phillip
5 when it was found that the UK McDonald's was importing
6 beef from Brazil, felt they needed some kind of cover note
7 from the supplier there reassuring them. Of course, it is
8 not for rainforest, you can tell Prince Phillip.
9
10 When it turns out that Lord Vestey gave evidence, he did
11 not know where his beef emanated from apart from his own
12 stocks, which I think he said was something like ten
13 percent. He did not pretend to be an expert on that
14 subject, even though he had written the letter to
15 McDonald's, which no doubt would have impressed Prince
16 Phillip if he ever saw it. But it turns out that the
17 letter was completely worthless and the reality was, as
18 our expert Professor Susanna Hecht concluded, was that
19 beef supplies on the market in the central areas of Brazil
20 will include substantial and significant amounts of cattle
21 that are being fed up to be slaughtered -- not fed up,
22 fattened up to be slaughtered and a significant number of
23 those cattle will have emanated from cleared rainforest
24 land.
25
26 I think, from memory, Lord Vestey's letter included the
27 points about the cattle were fattened up in the plain
28 States and that is....
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: His letter never was put in evidence. He
31 was called to give evidence.
32
33 MR. MORRIS: Right, yes. But McDonald's should have known
34 that letter was worthless at the time because the question
35 is, if the cattle is being fattened up, where did they
36 come from, and therefore McDonald's again misled -- I am
37 not sure if the letter was ever shown to Prince Phillip or
38 whatever, but anyway, that is history now.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, it never was, was it? It was just for
41 internal use.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: I don't know. No, actually --
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is no evidence it was for anything but
46 internal use.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Right.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The picture I have in my mind at the moment
51 is quite clear; the letter itself was not anything to do
52 with clearing Prince Phillip's mind. What the purpose of
53 it was, was to get rid of reservations in Oakbrook and Bob
54 Rae in this country, about getting cattle from Brazil no
55 doubt in the light of the stink which had arisen after
56 Prince Phillip saying that which in a later letter he said
57 he did not say to the president of the Canadian company.
58
59 MS. STEEL: I might be wrong, but I think that the plaintiffs
60 did try to use it in this case when Mr. Walker was being
