Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 08
1 Brazil had hoof and mouth disease, so it did not affect
2 Brazil at that time. It affected Central America.
3
4 And he gives some statistics in the central column on page
5 18, in the last paragraph above the phrase 'The search for
6 solutions': "45 percent of the beef Americans eat is
7 consumed in restaurants and fast food chains. By 1990
8 half the nation's food budget will be spent on meals
9 outside the home."
10
11 Then in the last column on that page, page 18, in the
12 large paragraph on the last column, it says: "Importing
13 beef to compete with US produced beef is said to have held
14 down the price of hamburgers by five cents per pound."
15 And the point being there is that the importation of beef
16 into the USA and, interestingly enough, actually, he also
17 refers to the importing of Brazilian beef into Europe at
18 that time which would be the same time as the UK beef
19 supplies from Brazil to McDonald's.
20
21 It says on page 17, in that other paragraph I referred to
22 about the cheap cuts used in hamburgers: "Over eighty
23 percent of Brazil's beef exports go to other countries,
24 mostly to western Europe, which has no laws against
25 imports from regions with hoof and mouth disease."
26
27 So what has happened is that the global demand created and
28 encouraged by McDonald's in particular and the fast food
29 industry in general, caused what might be the small volume
30 of imports as regards to the total US and western beef
31 production in their own countries, but an absolutely
32 enormous percentage increase in beef production in the
33 small countries of Central and Latin America.
34
35 And I do not think that really anyone has challenged
36 this. In fact, the plaintiffs did not bring any experts
37 on the beef industry. The only expert that they have
38 relied on is Dr. Nations. But they have only relied on
39 him on a factual basis. Can I just say, while it is on my
40 mind --
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: -- that what Dr. Nations says about McDonald's
45 specific imports of beef into the US in his statement, we
46 consider completely hearsay. There is absolutely no
47 evidence to back it up. If he is an expert, he is not
48 entitled to give evidence of fact unless he can show the
49 sources. And if I could just say that now, just in case
50 I forget to say that later. Probably, I suspect, the
51 sources are from McDonald's. He did not see --
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Suppose you are right about that, what am I
54 to make of, you know, the statistics he gives and things
55 like that? Does that not fall into the same category?
56
57 MR. MORRIS: He has verified his article and it has not been
58 challenged, and he is an expert, he is entitled to rely on
59 generally known work. Obviously, if it is...
60
