Follow-up on McDonalds

I decided to find out what McDonalds has to say about their destroying of the rainforest. There official policy as stated on their website reads:

• McDonald’s is committed to establishing and enforcing responsible environmental practices for all aspects of our business. As part of this charter, it is McDonald’s policy to use only locally produced and processed beef in every country where we have restaurants. In areas where domestic beef is not available in sufficient quantities to meet our needs, does not meet our quality standards, or is not competitive with world prices, McDonald’s imports beef from approved suppliers in other countries. In all cases, however, McDonald’s does not, has not and will not permit destruction of tropical rain forests for our beef supply. We do not, have not and will not purchase beef from rain forest or recently deforested rain forest land. Any McDonald’s supplier that is found to deviate from this policy—or that cannot prove compliance with it—will be immediately discontinued. Issued: 1989Updated: 2003

This is an interesting statement and a little amibiguos. As I have reviewed various testimonies given in the court trial it 1997 it appears that their purchasing of beef from deforested land may have stopped about 1988. However this doesn't cover the above statement that says that McDonalds has not purchased beef from rain forest lands or deforested lands.