Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 11
1 your points down as you go through it.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: May I just say, 'If you remember the Gonzalez
4 point', something like that?
5
6 So then the obvious thing would be to try to lobby for
7 changes in the labelling system or - yes, and as we have
8 heard, McDonald's is not shy about lobbying the
9 authorities on a wide range of issues, they have claimed
10 the moral high ground in this case about a wide range of
11 issues where they supported the health of the nation, and
12 we heard about making contacts even as early as the
13 seventies on employment issues with their congress person;
14 if you remember, that was the December dispute over the
15 minimum wage matters. I cannot think immediately on my
16 feet, but the point being that McDonald's is quite capable
17 of, and regularly has, lobbied the authorities one way or
18 another on matters of importance, and they have not done
19 it.
20
21 Not only have they not done it, Charles Secrett initiated
22 negotiations with them giving them the opportunity to take
23 the moral high ground to work with Friends of The Earth on
24 this subject for the benefit of tropical forests and they
25 broke off negotiations with him, we would say, as soon as
26 he started asking awkward questions which came up with,
27 when they probably checked it out, embarrassing answers.
28 So they cannot say they have never thought of this.
29
30 Now, moving on to specifics, I have got quite a few
31 references here, you will be pleased to know. First
32 question: can McDonald's develop a policy that will
33 effectively protect tropical forests? The sheer volume
34 of beef they use was referred to by Dr. Gonzalez, day 67,
35 page 3, line 36. 0.61 percent by volume, possibly
36 something like six percent by use of carcasses.
37
38 I have actually gone through this in quite some way
39 already in my introduction, so I will not go into the
40 global position.
41
42 Because of their specific role in the US market it has to
43 be recognised, and I think everyone would recognise in
44 this courtroom, the US market is absolutely huge in
45 comparison to other countries. The ten percent of the
46 animal reference is day 69, page 38, line 38, and an
47 interesting addition to that is that there is a reference
48 there from Dr. Gonzalez about other cuts being too
49 expensive and therefore that is why they can only have
50 access to a limited portion, or that is part of the
51 consideration of why they have only access to a limited
52 portion, of the carcass.
53
54 So they admit that not only is the market price sensitive
55 and therefore the imports of cheap beef are beneficial to
56 holding the price down, but also their own purchasing is
57 price sensitive. It does not really surprise anybody that
58 they would try and get the cheaper beef. We have heard of
59 the significance by proportion of the exports of beef in
60 Central and Latin America. In Costa Rica, for example, we
