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
