Nothing balanced about ADHB’s latest campaign

The AHDB’s new “Let’s Eat Balanced” advertising campaign is an insidious and irresponsible attempt to prop up a highly-polluting industry. The Climate Change Committee, the government’s advisors, have already clearly stated that meat and dairy consumption should be reduced to achieve national net zero targets, recommending an 50% reduction in all meat and dairy by 2050 for maximum impact. This latest PR push by a self-interested industry flies in the face of the scientific evidence, furthering the case for stronger regulation and sorely-needed government leadership.

We are disappointed, but not surprised, to see that the UK’s supermarkets have leant their name and advertising space to this ludicrous anachronism of a PR campaign. Once again, retailers representing over 90% of the market are exploiting their monopoly on people’s food purchases to push them towards the most harmful products. As we found in our 2023 Greenwash Grocers report, supply chain emissions (Scope 3) make up 95-99% of supermarket’s greenhouse gas emissions – about half of which comes directly from meat and dairy.

The willingness of food giants like Tesco and Sainsbury’s to engage in the AHDB’s new campaign only reinforces what we already knew – that supermarkets aren’t serious about net zero. These adverts are constructed to exploit the holes in the ASA’s growing regulation of environmental claims, by packaging advertisements for meat and dairy in general guidance for healthier diets. As an industrialised country, the UK consumes more than our fair share of global meat and dairy, so the AHDB’s new trojan horse advertising campaign hijacking the language of dietary guidelines to fix a non-existent problem. It will only push the public even further from balanced and sustainable diets.

We urgently need government leadership to ensure our food system is transformed for better public health, and arms-length bodies such as the ASA and CMA are granted guidance and authority to clamp down on this obvious greenwashing.