Oops, they did it again - palm oil lobby continues to mislead consumers

If you went to the Guardian Environment Blog at the end of March you might have stumbled upon a banner advert that read: 
"Sustainable. Food Security. Societal Advancement. This is Palm Oil"

"Hold on", you might think. Isn't palm oil expansion known to be one of the major drivers of deforestation in South East Asia? Aren't communities like the indigenous Penan people of Malaysia under severe threat from illegal and sometimes violent encroachment of palm oil companies onto their territory? Surely making such blatantly misleading claims to consumers should be banned?

Well, actually it already has been. Twice.

Already in 2008 and 2009 the Advertising Standards Authority banned two adverts (one on TV and one in print) containing similar claims about the sustainability of palm oil on the grounds that "the claim was likely to mislead." 

However the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) which is behind all these ads has chosen to disrespect the ASA's ruling and went ahead repeating their greenwash for a third time.

In response Friends of the Earth has submitted another complaint to the ASA and we are confident we'll get a ruling against MPOC's continued misinformation. However this time we are expecting the ASA to actually show some teeth and to advice UK media to ban the repeat offender MPOC from any advertising for a substantial period of time. We also want MPOC to publish an advert clarifying the truth around their misleading claims.

Malaysian palm oil giant convicted of violation

In a related development the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) announced on the 5th of April to suspend the certification of Malaysian oil palm giant IOI, because it violates their code of conduct in three ways: they are involved in land disputes over native customary land, they have drained peat land in endangered wildlife habitats and cleared forests.

Local communities, peasant organisations, Friends of the Earth Indonesia and Friends of the Earth Netherlands had filed a complaint at four certification bodies about the misconduct of the IOI Group in Sarawak (Malaysia) and Ketapang (Indonesia).

Today's statement is the first decisive action of the RSPO after dragging their feet continuously over earlier complaints.

Friends of the Earth International has frequently pointed out the loopholes of the RSPO as well as its failure to enforce any of its own standards.

If you would like to find out more about the reality of palm oil expansion vs. the industry lobby's claims read our report Palm oil - green gold or greenwash?