Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 12

     
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     2   MR. MORRIS:  I call Mr. Cannon.
     3
     4                      MR. GEOFFREY CANNON, Affirmed
     5                       Examined by the Defendants
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  Mr. Cannon has brought copies of books which he
     8        may be referring to.  The extracts he may refer to have
     9        all been served.  Obviously some of those books have over
    10        1000 pages.  Can you give the court your full name,
    11        please?
    12        A.  Geoffrey John Cannon.
    13
    14   Q.   Your address, home address or where you are based?
    15        A.  6 Aldridge Road Villas, London W11, 1BP.
    16
    17   Q.   Would you explain what your present position is?
    18        A.  My present position -- if you mean by that, what do I
    19        do mostly for a living, I am currently Director of Science
    20        of the World Cancer Research Fund.  The main work I do not
         for a living, that is to say, charitable work, is that
    22        I am chairman of the National Food Alliance.  The National
    23        Food Alliance is the representative body for all national
    24        organisations in this country outside government and
    25        industry concerned with food and health policy and
    26        nutrition policy.
    27
    28   Q.   Because of your position with the National Food Alliance,
    29        does that give you membership of the government's
    30        nutrition task force?
    31        A.  In effect, yes.  The government issued a white paper,
    32        "The Health of the Nation", in 1991, to the best of my
    33        recollection, and at the end of 1992 founded a national
    34        nutrition task force whose job was to try to translate the
    35        recommendations of the white paper "The Health of the
    36        Nation" inasmuch as they concerned nutrition into public
    37        policy.  The policy of government is to invite people on
    38        to the task force in two capacities -- (1) in a personal
    39        capacity as people who are regarded as expert, and (2)
    40        also in a capacity, as it were, as to where they come
         from.   I understand that I, in common with all other
    42        members of the nutrition task force, was invited onto the
    43        task force in that joint capacity.
    44
    45   Q.   Would you just expand a little bit on what your position
    46        is with the World Cancer Research Fund?  What the remit of
    47        that position is?
    48        A.  Well, the remit of the World Cancer Research Fund is
    49        to prevent cancer and to prevent cancer by dietary means.
    50        In that respect it has a unique remit in that other cancer 
    51        charities are much broader in their concern and 
    52        characteristically are concerned to fund scientific 
    53        research into cancer and into cancer treatment.
    54
    55        The World Cancer Research Fund is different in that it has
    56        been the belief of the organisation and of its parent
    57        body, the American Institute for Cancer Research (which is
    58        now the third largest cancer charity in the States) that
    59        the science on dietary cancer is solid enough as a basis
    60        on which to make public health recommendations.