Article reproduced courtesy of the Guardian Environment Network
'Sustainable' palm oil campaign banned by ASA 9th September,
2009 Advertorial claimed that controversial oil business was
'green answer' and was important to alleviating poverty A press
campaign making environmental claims about the controversial
product Malaysian Palm Oil, including that it is "sustainable",
has been banned as misleading by the advertising regulator. Palm
Oil, which is used in a third of all groceries, has been at the
centre of an environmental debate over its role in the
destruction of rainforest in areas such as south-east Asia. The
press campaign, run by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC),
made a number of claims, including that the product was the
"green answer" and that palm oil is the "only product able to
sustainably and efficiently meet a larger portion of the world's
increasing demand for oil crop-based consumer goods, foodstuffs
and biofuels". MPOC also argued that the palm oil business had
played an important role