UK: Arla reprimanded for calling organic farming 'sustainable'
The Advertising Standards Authority received a complained from someone who believed that dairy farming was not good for the land challenged whether the claim “Good for the land ... helping to support a more sustainable future” was misleading.
Arla Foods Ltd said that the advert referred to an organic product and organic farming methods. They stated that one of the key principles of organic farming was good treatment of the land and that sustainability was at the heart of organic farming, which included both the use of renewable and the protection of non-renewable resources. They also stated that all of their farms were certified as organic by relevant independent associations.
Arla Foods provided the Soil Association’s organic standards document in support of the claim. They said that the ethos of organic farming revolved around taking great care to look after the land and it was, therefore, good for the land that it was being farmed organically. They also said they took steps across their business in relation to the environment and sustainability which were relevant to the full life cycle of the advertised product. The impact on the environment was considered in every step of the production process.
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claim “Good for the land … helping to support a more sustainable future” to mean that the production of the advertised organic farm milk was undertaken in such a way that it would have an overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle. ASA acknowledged that Arla had provided evidence regarding the organic farming methods used and that they believed this was more sustainable than non-organic farming. However, ASA did not consider they had substantiated that organic milk production had an overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle. They therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.
The ad must not appear again in its current form. ASA told Arla Foods Ltd to ensure that in the future they did not make environmental claims about their products unless they held sufficient substantiation.