Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 15

     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  Continuing to read:
     3
     4        "...because of the manner in which beef imported from Latin
     5        America and other regions of the world to the United States
     6        was sorted and distributed to the so-called 'fast-food'
     7        sector of the meat trade in the United States during this
     8        period, and including beef supplied for making hamburgers"
     9         -- I think that should be "for McDonald's" -- "and other
    10        such fast-food chains.
    11
    12        6.3.  As my letter (5/12/85) to Annette Allen makes clear,
    13        in summarising the substance of our discussions about FOE's
    14        concerns, the US fast-food sector had and still has
    15        tremendous difficulties in denying absolutely any
    16        connection between their products, including McDonald's
    17        hamburgers, and tropical deforestation, or their beef's
    18        origin from countries that contain tropical forests,
    19        because of the grading and labelling system operated by the
    20        US Department of Agriculture (USDA) during the period in
         question.
    22
    23        Such beef supplies imported into the USA, along with
    24        comparable beef supplies originating in the USA, were
    25        stored and checked for health and quality assurance
    26        purposes by USDA inspectors before being sold onto the
    27        wholesale and retail trade.  Once beef consignments had
    28        been passed fit for consumption by the inspectors, and
    29        stamped USDA approved, they were graded according to the
    30        quality of the meat.  To the best of my knowledge, this was
    31        the only certification available to buyers, including
    32        retail purchasers, about the status, including the country
    33        of origin, of the beef.
    34
    35        Once stocks of both imported beef, such as the meat used in
    36        the fast-food trade, and genuinely domestic reared (i.e. in
    37        the US itself) beef had been checked by USDA inspectors,
    38        all such supplies consequently earned the status of US
    39        graded beef, and were sorted and sold on to the retail
    40        trade according to quality and end-use criteria - but,
         crucially, not according to the country of origin of the
    42        cattle used to provide such beef.
    43
    44        There is no question that beef in significant quantities
    45        was imported into the US for the fast-food sector from
    46        Central American countries like Costa Rica and Guatemala
    47        throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and, during the 1960s and
    48        1970s at least, substantial beef imports came from Brazil;
    49        and, that various categories of tropical dry, wet and
    50        rainforest continued to be cleared in these and other 
    51        countries throughout these decades to create pastures for 
    52        rearing cattle:  this is well documented in official and 
    53        scientific literature.
    54
    55        Although one could not prove categorically that such beef
    56        definitely could be found in any specific consignment of
    57        hamburgers or other fast-food meats, the only realistic
    58        conclusion, given the circumstances operating at the time
    59        and which govern the supply of beef for the fast-food
    60        sector in the US, is that, during the 1970s and much if not