Day 049 - 09 Nov 94 - Page 16

     
     1
     2   Q.   You have not actually got any nutritional qualifications,
     3        have you?
     4        A.  No, although -- I was just going to say, obviously,
     5        when I worked at the society, I worked with a qualified
     6        nutritionist on any information that was given out in that
     7        area.
     8
     9   Q.   As part of giving talks, do you have to have a basic
    10        awareness of these kinds of areas?
    11        A.  I mean, I have read probably more nutritional articles
    12        than the average person by far, and also I read all the
    13        medical journals that report on health issues.  So I would
    14        say I have got a pretty high awareness, yes.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have any kind of post or position in
    17        the same kind of field now?
    18        A.   Yes.  I am director of a new charity now, called VIVA,
    19        which is another vegetarian charity.
    20
    Q.   What is its special interest?
    22        A.  Campaigning in youth education.  It is a similar post,
    23        in a way, to what I had at The Vegetarian Society, really,
    24        except that I am director of the whole charity.
    25
    26   Q.    How is that spelt -- VIVA?
    27        A.  Yes.
    28
    29   Q.   Is it an acronym?
    30        A.  Yes:  Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:  Moving on to the area of, I suppose, vegetarianism,
    33        you said that the advertisements appear to deceive children
    34        about the food that McDonald's sell.  You said that, for
    35        example, children do not believe that Chicken McNuggetts
    36        are made from real birds.  Can you explain what you mean by
    37        that?
    38        A.  When, with the younger children, I did talks on things
    39        like what they ate on a daily basis, if you asked them what
    40        something like a Chicken McNuggett actually was or, for
         that matter, a beefburger or a hamburger, what it actually
    42        was, some of the children were not aware that the products
    43        came from once living creatures; and, again, it changed
    44        very much according to their age group.
    45
    46   Q.   Roughly what age are you talking about there?
    47        A.  The youngest age group that I would speak to, which
    48        would be seven, eight, sometimes even older, sometimes
    49        nine year-olds.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like to understand what you are saying 
    52        about that.  If a child were at home eating roast lamb, and 
    53        you said, "Do you realise that came from a little lamb
    54        which was once in a field", they probably would say, "Oh,
    55        no", and they might get upset about it; the same if they
    56        were having a rabbit stew, and you said, "Do you realise
    57        that is made of bunny rabbits" -- because they just had not
    58        thought of it in that light.
    59
    60        Are you saying more than that, that if they have a