Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 50
1 extent, in other EC countries. In Costa Rica the beef is
Costa Rican. In Guatemala it is Guatemalan. In Australia
2 it is Australian, and so on. There are some few
exceptions, they are these. In Japan, Hong Kong,
3 Singapore and Malaysia which have insufficient cattle of
their own, the beef is imported from Australia.
4
Even in those parts of the world which do have
5 rainforests, such as Costa Rica and Guatemala, which are
the two countries to which the defendants make reference
6 in their defence, the beef used in the plaintiffs'
restaurants comes from land which, if it ever was
7 rainforest, and that assumption should not be made, was
cleared of its trees many years ago. Thus, in Costa Rica
8 where the first McDonald's restaurant was opened in 1970,
some of the land on which the beef was raised had been
9 rainforest up to the 1960s, whilst other cattle-growing
areas in that country from which the beef came had not
10 been rainforest since the 1900s. The position has not
changed since then.
11
The nine McDonald's restaurants which Costa Rica now has,
12 still take no beef from any area of the country deforested
more recently than the mid-1960s. One asks the question,
13 if that is so and the land was what it was by the time
McDonald's got to Costa Rica and has remained the same
14 land since then, that is to say, grazing land for cattle,
what conceivable responsibility could be thought that
15 McDonald's had or has for what happened to the trees
before McDonald's got there?
16
My Lord, in Guatemala the position is even more striking.
17 The first McDonald's restaurant in Guatemala was opened in
1974. The land from which that restaurant took its beef
18 and from which the eight restaurants which now exist in
Guatemala still take their beef, had not been rainforest
19 land since the end of the last century.
20 My Lord, McDonald's lack of involvement in or
responsibility for the destruction of any rainforest trees
21 anywhere in the world is not accidental. There are two
reasons why it is not an accident. The first is this.
22 McDonald's in the United States does not use (and has
never used) any imported beef. This rule is actually
23 written into the first plaintiffs' specifications to their
suppliers and has been in place for as long as anyone can
24 recall. In turn, McDonald's suppliers must obtain similar
guarantees from their suppliers.
25
If that needs explanation, it is this, that more often
26 than not McDonald's obtains its products from people like
McKey Foods who process beef which the processor in turn
27 has obtained from a primary source, such as a slaughter
house.
28
So, the rule is, if the supplier is not the slaughterer,
29 he must obtain a certification from his supplier who does
slaughter the meat, that it is 100 per cent US beef, which
30 means not simply that it is marked "US beef", but that it
is guaranteed slaughtered within the continental
