Day 278 - 11 Jul 96 - Page 38
1 it was it was at my parents' house. It was only when I was
2 back there at one time looking through stuff that I came
3 across it and suddenly remembered about it. There is
4 undoubtedly other stuff which may or may not be in the
5 bundles, which I have seen, which convinced me that the
6 fact sheet was true.
7
8 I have seen, what I was talking about this morning, I
9 have not said anywhere that I have read anywhere
10 specifically a single paragraph saying that McDonald's use
11 lethal poisons, but I have read in lots of places that
12 McDonald's had ranching interests, indeed in some cases
13 that they owned ranches. And I have also read in the same
14 sorts of articles that ranch owners and people involved
15 with running the ranches used lethal chemicals, poisons, so
16 putting the two together, the leaflet to me seemed to be
17 true according to, you know, what I had seen.
18
19 Obviously, if McDonald's are going to operate a ranch
20 in former rainforest land, the forests have to be destroyed
21 and they have to be destroyed by some method and one of the
22 methods is lethal poisons. There was, I do remember,
23 several references in the past to, for example, Kings
24 Ranches in Brazil being a company which had connections
25 with McDonald's or which McDonald's did have some interest
26 in, and I have actually found the particular bit that I was
27 referring to this morning. It was actually in "Hoof Prints
28 in the Forest", and this not the only place that I have
29 seen it. I do not know whether you have still got "Hoof
30 Prints" available.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Refer me to the page. Which page is it?
33 A. Which page is it? Page 61.
34
35 Q. Well, hold on a moment. Yes, they are just in the wrong
36 order.
37 A. At the top, the first paragraph on that page, it says
38 that "More than one respected environmentalist has alleged
39 that McDonald's operates a cattle ranch in Brazil", and
40 this is not the only place that I have seen that. I have
41 seen that in other places, statements about McDonald's
42 operating cattle ranches in Brazil. As I say, the name
43 Kings Ranch is one of the companies that people have cited
44 as having connections with McDonald's.
45
46 Q. But what stand do you take on that now, because it does not
47 identify the environmentalist and I do not have one jot of
48 evidence that I can recall that McDonald's operates, or
49 ever has operated, a cattle ranch in Brazil. I mean, do
50 you accept that whatever respected environmentalist may
51 have said that McDonald's have not ever had a cattle ranch
52 in Brazil, or do you still say that they had them?
53 A. I personally do not believe McDonald's -- as I said
54 before, we are unwaged, it has been very difficult for us
55 to get everything, get all the witnesses to court, get
56 information, and the rainforest issue has been the hardest
57 one because every potential witness is the other side of
58 the world. And because of land ownership, and things like
59 that, it is quite hard to investigate exactly who owns
60 land. And you need somebody who is very experienced in
