Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 07

     
     1        A.  McDonald's Corporation does some of the research
     2        itself.  It also works with trade associations.  We also
     3        fund research on microbiology.  So, we work in a lot of
     4        different ways.  We tried to leverage our resources both
     5        from the government, the industry, as well as the academia
     6        but we use all of those resources.
     7
     8   Q.   This may seem a question which answers itself in a way,
     9        Dr. Gonzales.  Have these various consultations, pieces of
    10        research, and so on, involved you personally?
    11        A.  Yes, they have.  For example, I had the opportunity to
    12        work directly with the head of the US Department of
    13        Agriculture in charge of the Food Safety Inspection Service
    14        to determine in a gathering of all the industry, the beef
    15        industry, in the United States.
    16
    17        For example, about a year ago McDonald's Corporation (and
    18        I was one of the leaders in this area) we got together, we
    19        called all of our suppliers in the US which represent
    20        about, I would say, 85 to 90 per cent of the available beef
         in the US, we brought them up in a room, we brought people
    22        from the government, we brought people from academia, we
    23        brought people from the industry, and we talk about food
    24        safety.  We share our information as well as our
    25        expectations.
    26
    27        We tell them we will have new requirements for us to buy
    28        beef from them.  We also share some of our communication,
    29        discussions, that we have had with the government.  We knew
    30        that the government was going to come forward with those
    31        regulations in the future, but we wanted to start ahead of
    32        everybody because that information was already available
    33        for the industry.
    34
    35   Q.   You travel I think quite a lot?
    36        A.  Yes, I do.
    37
    38   Q.   In the course of your travels do you meet other people who
    39        have an expertise in animal welfare, in food science, food
    40        safety technology, matters of that kind?
         A.  Yes, I do.  I travel throughout the world and I have
    42        that opportunity to work with those people and again, of
    43        course, people could be people from academia, from the
    44        government or from the industry.
    45
    46   Q.   If you will forgive me and if you will put your modesty in
    47        your pocket for a moment, have you met anybody in the
    48        course of your travels, whether in the United States or in
    49        other parts of the world, who has the same range of
    50        scientific qualifications that you do? 
    51        A.  That is a very difficult question to answer.  But 
    52        I would say that it has been my experience that the people 
    53        that I come in contact with have a high degree of expertise
    54        in a particular field, that could be animal production, it
    55        could be welfare of animals, it could be government
    56        regulations, it could be production, processing, quality
    57        control.  But, to be honest, I have not come across, to my
    58        experience, anybody with that kind of, with that combined
    59        expertise from production to fitting(?) to processing of
    60        meat products from chicken, beef or pork or even fish.