Red Tractor misled public on green claims, rules ad watchdog

The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned a Red Tractor TV advert for misleading consumers about environmental standards, a decision the assurance scheme strongly disputes, calling the findings “fundamentally flawed” and “misinterpreted”.

After a two-and-a-half-year investigation, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint by environmental charity River Action, concluding that a Red Tractor TV advert breached rules.

The ruling concerns a 2021 advert, last aired in May 2023, in which Red Tractor, the UK’s largest farm assurance scheme, claimed: “From field to store all our standards are met… When the Red Tractor’s there, your food’s farmed with care.”

See also: Opinion: Time for Red Tractor inspectors to look beyond their clipboards

River Action challenged the advert by raising concerns that environmental standards relating to pollution on Red Tractor farms were not being met.

During its investigation, the ASA reviewed Red Tractor’s argument that it is not an environmental certification mark specifically “so did not seek to replicate environmental law or even cover all aspects of pollution risks by farms”.

However, the ASA found Red Tractor had failed to provide “sufficient evidence” that its farms met “basic” environmental laws and had a good environmental outcome to substantiate its claims in the advert.

The watchdog also concluded that the advertisement was “misleading” and “likely to exaggerate the benefits of Red Tractor endorsement”.

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

“We told Assured Food Standards trading as Red Tractor, when claiming ‘farmed with care’ in conjunction with ‘all our standards are met’ in advertising, to make clear exactly what standards they were referring to, and the degree to which they claimed that they were being met,” it concluded.

The ruling also cited Environment Agency (EA) data submitted by River Action, showing around half of Red Tractor farms were “not fully compliant”, with the EA concluding that membership “is not currently an indicator of good environmental performance”.

EA data 

Between 2014 and 2019, EA inspections found that Red Tractor-certified farms accounted for 62% of the most serious agricultural pollution incidents in England.

Red Tractor told the ASA that while 62% of serious pollution incidents involved its farms, this represented just 0.4% of all Red Tractor farms over five years – 250 incidents out of 59,013 farms – making the figure appear more significant than it was in context.

River Action chairman Charles Watson said: “This ASA ruling confirms what we’ve long argued. Red Tractor’s claims aren’t just misleading – they provide cover for farms breaking the law.

“Supermarkets and their suppliers now face serious reputational risk if they hide behind Red Tractor greenwash. By selling products linked to pollution, they deceive customers, undermine trust, and fail in their duty to ensure supply chains obey the law.”

Red Tractor rebuttal

However, Red Tractor told Farmers Weekly the EA data used by River Action reflects breaches of environmental law, not its own standards, which focus on food safety, animal welfare, and traceability.

It argued that the data sample is “not representative” as the EA only inspects 6,000 farms a year for compliance with environmental regulation and due to their limited resources deliberately targets higher risk farms where they suspect there is an issue.

In contrast, all 42,000 Red Tractor assured farmers are audited for compliance with Red Tractor standards every 12-18 months.

It said 98.8% of its farmers were compliant with its own environmental requirements between November 2021 and May 2023, based on regular independent audits.

Chief executive Jim Moseley described the ASA ruling as “fundamentally flawed” and accused it of misinterpreting the advert.

“If the advert was clearly misleading, it wouldn’t have taken so long to reach this conclusion. Accordingly, the ASA’s actions are minimal,” he said.

“They’ve confirmed that we can continue to use ‘Farmed with Care’ but simply need to provide more information on the specific standards being referred to, such as a link to our website.”

He added that the advert “made no environmental claim” and disagreed that consumers would interpret it otherwise. It also predates the now-abandoned Greener Farms Commitment – a voluntary environmental module Red Tractor dropped following industry backlash.

NFFN comment

Commenting on the ruling, Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), said: “Consumers and farmers want real sustainability, not a sticker.

“Supermarkets hiding behind Red Tractor need to sort out their suppliers or face low consumer confidence and difficult questions about environmental violations damaging our rivers.”