Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 05

     
     1        seems to be where that reference emanated from in the fact
     2        sheet.
     3
     4        The point I am making - 30,000 plant species - the point I
     5        am making is that in Doug Shane's book, that sentence
     6        says, 'Hoof Prints in The Forest':  "Is it possible for
     7        man to manage tropical forest" -- I emphasise that -- "on
     8        a sustained year basis for -- agricultural projects or
     9        must natural -- with their estimated 30,000 species of
    10        vascular plants, et cetera, inevitably give way to
    11        plantations of pine, eucalyptus or other non-cultures or
    12        barren red deserts of failed development schemes.  It
    13        talks about livestock and stuff.  The point I am making is
    14        that Doug Shane there defines the number of species in
    15        tropical forests as 30,000, which corresponds....
    16
    17        The general point, obviously I have made it before, but
    18        throughout the 'Hoof Prints in The Forest' book, Douglas
    19        Shane uses the word tropical forests to define the area of
    20        concern.  In Jim Nations' article, every reference to the
         area of concern is rainforests, and I cannot distinguish
    22        between the two experts.  It seems to me completely, in
    23        their eyes, that the two words are interchangeable as far
    24        as they are concerned.  Those are even in what might be
    25        called semi-scientific literature.  (Pause)
    26
    27        Now, before I come on to policy, there are a couple of
    28        points I want to make about McDonald's reputation on this
    29        issue.  I made the general point, I think, on Monday that
    30        McDonald's and the hamburger industry in general and their
    31        part in that industry have a bad reputation when it comes
    32        to the issue in the case, and had that reputation before
    33        the alleged distribution by us.  So we would argue that
    34        that may affect whether the material is defamatory,
    35        whether it lowers the reputation of McDonald's and,
    36        secondly, it goes to damages, the damages issue.  I mean,
    37        the obvious point of view is, if someone has a bad
    38        reputation about something, then it cannot be lowered on
    39        that same issue.  Obviously, we would say they have
    40        rightly got a bad reputation, but that is another matter.
    41
    42        Now, further, in terms of their company efforts to project
    43        a better image for themselves about this subject, we have
    44        seen in this case the letter from McDonald's Corporation's
    45        solicitors to the BBC, 1st May 1994.  I apologise, I am
    46        going to mention four documents and I do not have the
    47        references.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Carry on.  If you can give me these
    50        references in due course, do so.
    51
    52   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  Which contained the phrase, "Neither the 
    53        US nor the Canadian companies nor any other McDonald's
    54        company has used or does use meat which comes from cattle
    55        reared in former rainforest areas".  And they knew that
    56        was untrue and therefore it is a lie, and that is a lie
    57        from their solicitors to the BBC.
    58
    59        Then the letter from George Cohen to the executive
    60        director of the World Wildlife Fund in Canada, Monty