11/09/2009 (Fair Home) - An advertising campaign claiming that palm oil is sustainable and the “green answer” has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

ASA upheld four complaints against the magazine advert by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC).

Palm oil plantations producing the vegetable fat for food, biofuels, and household products are responsible for the destruction of thousands of acres of rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Indigenous tribes have been evicted from land now used to grow the crop, while the rainforest destruction further threatens endangered species including orangutans.

The magazine advert claimed palm oil is the only crop able to sustainable meet growing global demand for food and biofuel.

“A number of criticisms have been levelled at Malaysia’s palm oil industry, from accusations of rampant deforestation and unsound environmental practices to unfair treatment of farmers and indigenous people,” the advert said.

“These allegations – protectionist agendas hidden under a thin veneer of environmental concern – are based neither on scientific evidence, nor, for that matter, on fact.”

Palm oil production has played an important role in the “alleviation of poverty, especially among rural populations,” the advert claimed.

Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE) and two members of the public complained that the MPOC advert was misleading.

The ASA upheld their complaints, ruling that the sustainability of biofuels is “still the subject of debate” and that the MPOC cannot provide that production of palm oil does not lead to rainforest destruction.

Biofuel production has been shown to have adverse effects on the poor, the ASA said, because it causes a rise in food prices.

The advert cannot be shown again in its current form, the ASA ruled.