Farmers’ fury at organic dairy ad ban

FARMERS have hit out at a ruling by the advertising watchdog that organic dairy farming is not “good for the land”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an Arla Foods advertisement for organic milk, saying it was “misleading”.

The watchdog upheld a reader’s complaint that the ad, which also claimed the milk was “helping support a more sustainable future”, was misleading on the grounds that dairy farming was not good for the land.

However, Michael Oakes, the National Farmers’ Union Dairy Board chairman, said the ruling was “disappointing”.

“It’s been a long-held belief that organic farming does hold benefits,” he said.

“We are frustrated with how the ASA works, and we’d be really interested to learn how they reach these decisions.”

Arla said one of the key principles of organic farming was good treatment of the land.

The ASA said: “We did not consider [that Arla] had substantiated that organic milk production had an overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle.”