Day 233 - 26 03 96 - Page 23

 
 

                                                                  DAY 233
 
                                                  HOWARD LYMAN, Examined:
 
 
 
     1        drugs, implants, type of animal, or country of origin.
     2        I was uninterested in this arrangement because I was
     3        expected to bear the majority of the financial risk to
     4        ensure an even supply of animals.  I knew of no one who
     5        agreed to this arrangement."
     6        A.  Let me just say one thing here; that it was normal in
     7        the industry that business was done on a verbal basis.  We
     8        did not require people to bring us documentation of what
     9        they said.  We dealt with thousands and thousands of
    10        dollars of transactions on the telephone or with a
    11        handshake.  There were not contracts; there were not
    12        lawyers involved.  This was a normal type of production.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Carry on reading, Mr. Morris.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  "When I was involved in the cattle
    17        business, I saw, many times, meat shipped in boxes very
    18        prominently labelled 'inspected by USDA', but also
    19        labelled, in very fine print, that it was a product
    20        produced in Central America.  I saw these kind of products
    21        delivered to the public school system for the lunch
    22        programmes that were paid for by the US government.
    23        Determining the country of original was very difficult if
    24        you did not know what you were looking for.
    25
    26        "I have seen video tape of a United States Senator in a
    27        hold of a ship viewing imported meat from Central America.
    28        This meat was in boxes that contained no label at all
    29        stating the country of origin, and after it was inspected
    30        by USDA inspectors, the only label it had was 'USDA
    31        inspected meat'.  To track imported meat without the
    32        support of the company that held the manifest, in my
    33        opinion, would be almost impossible."
    34
    35        Can you just explain what the manifest is?  I think it is
    36        pretty obvious.
    37        A.  This case was a very hot topic in the beef industry
    38        because of imported meat.  That video tape was shot under
    39        the direction of Senator John Melcher.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  None of that makes a blind bit of difference,
    42        whether it is admissible in evidence.  What I am more
    43        interested in is what it was which told you that the meat
    44        was imported from Central America.  Was it something you
    45        heard on the commentary, or was it -----
    46        A.  It was a personal conversation with a personal friend,
    47        which was Senator John Melcher of the State of Montana.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Leave it there then.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  You said that there was a controversy at this 
    52        time.  Was there investigation by Congress representatives, 
    53        or whatever, about the problem of imported beef not being
    54        labelled properly?
    55        A.  Senator John Melcher at that time was the chairman of a
    56        committee that was looking into the importation of meat and
    57        the labelling and the thing, and that video was part of
    58        that.  I saw that video myself.
    59
    60   Q.   Right.  But in terms of the -- you are aware that -- is it
 
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