Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 08

     
     1        A.  I have read -- I presume you are referring to John
     2        Horwitz, who I do know slightly from having dealt with him
     3        in these matters -- I have read his testimony.  I was
     4        surprised to read that. It is false.  I have a grudge
     5        against, or had -- I no longer do; I am not an Assistant
     6        Attorney General any more -- I had a grudge, and it was my
     7        job to have a grudge, against any company that violated
     8        the laws of the state, deceived our citizens, deceived the
     9        people of the state of Texas, and, specifically, knowingly
    10        engaging in deceptive advertising or marketing behaviour;
    11        deceptive behaviour of any kind; rolling back odometers,
    12        fraud in landlord and tenant relationships; anything.  I
    13        do, as an advocate, I do hold a grudge against people who
    14        violate the law.
    15
    16        McDonald's is -- was rather -- a company that violated the
    17        law.  I wanted them to correct those violations.  As far
    18        as I knew, they had.  But as far as a grudge or vendetta
    19        against them, any allegation of that is made of whole
    20        cloth, is absolutely untrue.
    21
    22   Q.   We are going to go into the details now.
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:   I wanted to go back to the 1986 investigation into
    25        the food industry that led to the booklets being
    26        produced.  Could you just expand a bit on the reasons why
    27        you decided, or why you felt that some kind of nutritional
    28        information was important and the approach that you made
    29        to companies concerning this?
    30        A.  American consumers eat a great deal of the time at
    31        fastfood restaurants, McDonald's and others.  As a whole,
    32        they do not do that out of choice.  They do it out of
    33        necessity; whether you have a two income family that just
    34        does not have time to make dinner before rushing off to a
    35        soccer game, or some other activity, or the single parent
    36        who does not have time to feed the kids and give the kids
    37        a bath and all the other necessities of life before
    38        getting them into bed, or just a single person who is
    39        working and has more work to do; for a variety of reasons,
    40        American consumers eat at fastfood restaurants.
    41
    42        For very good reasons, American consumers also desire that
    43        the food they eat in general is healthy, is nutritious,
    44        and by that I mean is -- when I say "nutritious", I should
    45        say it is something that is of benefit to them when
    46        consumed, and they desire to lower, reduce in their diets
    47        the deleterious elements that are present in foods such
    48        as, specifically, sodium, cholesterol, saturated fats and
    49        fat in particular.
    50 
    51        There is currently in the United States a high level of 
    52        interest in non-fat food products, companies are promoting 
    53        them extensively.  This is in response to that consumer
    54        interest.  That consumer interest started in the early
    55        1980s and increased as you went through the decade, and is
    56        still at a very, very high level, although, I would
    57        suspect, it has peaked.  It is about as high as it is
    58        going to get.  At that time it was still on the rise.
    59
    60        The food overall in fastfood restaurants, including in