Day 287 - 25 Oct 96 - Page 13


     
     1        McDonald's have a policy, they said, of not buying beef
     2        from soya or soya fed cattle, and this was in the document
     3        volume 5, tab 37, I think, although for some reason I have
     4        a 42 on the top of the document, probably because it is our
     5        document originally and it may have ended up in the
     6        Plaintiffs' references.  In any case, it is dated 9, 91,
     7        McDonald's Corporation Policy Statement on The
     8        Environment:  "In all countries, we use beef from cattle
     9        fed on corn and grass, we do not buy beef from soya or soya
    10        fed cattle", and it is under the subheading in that area
    11        about McDonald's not being responsible for tropical
    12        rainforest destruction.
    13
    14        That, we would say, is an admission, a recognition, that
    15        the use of soya feed around the world is a major
    16        contributing factor to environmental devastation, as we
    17        have heard from our expert witnesses, in Brazil, and we
    18        would say there is obviously the same argument, which I
    19        will not go through, about the promotion of beef production
    20        and McDonald's, therefore, causal and pivotal
    21        responsibility worldwide for the damage that beef
    22        production has caused to tropical forests.  Whatever the
    23        detail on the local level in tropical forest countries
    24        would apply to soya production as well.  And that is a
    25        recognition, we would say, of that.  Not only that, but
    26        Mr. Oakley had never heard of such a policy, and that was
    27        on day 64, page 37, and he is in charge of purchasing for
    28        Northern Europe McDonald's, which would include Germany,
    29        for example.  Actually, I am not hundred percent sure if
    30        that does include Germany.
    31
    32   MR JUSTICE BELL:  I think you may not be right about that,
    33        because I got the impression that Germany is big in
    34        McDonald's and looks after itself.
    35
    36   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, I do not think Germany came under his area of
    37        responsibility.  In any event, at the top of page 37 --
    38        soya -- I asked him, "Are you aware, though, that soya feed
    39        is used in the UK and Denmark and Germany for cattle
    40        raising?"  He said, "I believe it is part of the feed in
    41        the winter months, yes."  And on the previous page, I asked
    42        him whether he would know what kind of percentage of cattle
    43        might be using soya fed cattle destined for McDonald's.  He
    44        answered he did not know, he had never discussed it with
    45        anyone, he was not aware of the policy.  Mr. Cesca was
    46        asked about it, and I cannot find the reference to that, in
    47        a moment I will come to it, and he did not know about the
    48        policy in his role of -- well, whatever his role was,
    49        global trade head of department, whatever.
    50 
    51        So we say that policy is a recognition, and the fact that 
    52        we do not know about it means that it is purely for 
    53        propaganda purposes, it is another policy put out by
    54        McDonald's for propaganda purposes to kind of suppress
    55        public dissent, concern and scrutiny on an important issue
    56        relevant to tropical forest destruction, which not only do
    57        they not carry out, they do not even know.  It is one of
    58        these policies that Mr. Oakley would say would effect the
    59        communications department but not the purchasing
    60        department.  And, as Mr. Walker for Mckeys, McDonald's sole

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