Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 14


     
     1        Head Office in London, and subsequently corresponded
     2        briefly with Annette Allen, the then Public Relations
     3        Manager of McDonald's in the UK about,
     4
     5        4.1 deforestation and cattle ranching on tropical forest
     6        land in Latin America, and Central America in particular;
     7
     8        4.2 the export of beef from these areas for consumption in
     9        the fast-food sector of the United States, including the
    10        likely use by McDonald's US of such meat supplies;
    11
    12        4.3 McDonald's categoric and repeated public claims that,
    13        in the United States and elsewhere, they have never used
    14        beef originating from any South American or Central
    15        American country in any of their products, or used beef
    16        supplies anywhere in the world threatened tropical
    17        rainforests.
    18
    19        4.4 Opportunities to work co-operatively to clear up, to
    20        the mutual advantage of environmentalists and the fast-food
    21        sector in the United States, persistent and
    22        institutionalised confusion over the certification process,
    23        and thus countries of origin of the cattle carcasses, for
    24        beef imports into the United States.".
    25
    26        We will come to the letters regarding that later on.
    27        A.  OK.
    28
    29   Q.   "5.  I have attached copies of relevant correspondence,
    30        including copies of correspondence from McDonald's to two
    31        Friends of the Earth supporters, dated respectively 7 May
    32        and 11 December 1986, which FOE has on its files, and a
    33        copy of an internal memo from Annette Allen (11 November
    34        1985) summarising her version of the discussion which we
    35        had at our earlier meeting.
    36
    37        6. I would like to make the following points in relation to
    38        the issues summarised under point 4):
    39
    40        6.1)  During the 1980s, Friends of the Earth was extremely
    41        concerned that McDonald's in the UK and in other countries
    42        were, either inadvertently or deliberately, making
    43        misleading claims in public about the origin of the beef
    44        used in their United States restaurants by stating
    45        categorically that 'McDonald's USA... has never purchased
    46        imported beef from Central America or South America for use
    47        in their hamburgers' (cf. letter to me from Annette Allen,
    48        20 November 1985), and 'McDonald's does not use any South
    49        American or Central American beef for hamburgers sold in
    50        the United States' and 'nowhere in the entire world does 
    51        McDonald's use of beef threaten or remotely involve 
    52        tropical rainforests' (cf. sample letters 7 May 11 
    53        December, 1986)."
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think we have got to do a bit of summary
    56        here.  You go on to state your reasons for believing that
    57        those assertions are false and cannot be true for the
    58        period in question, that is up until the end of 1986, and
    59        stating that reason you say -- would you like to read on
    60        from "because of" Mr. Morris?

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