News

Egg Corp's 'Free Range' con

21 June 2010
Free Range Farmers Association Inc

Consumers will be ripped off by the Australian Egg Corporation Ltd's plans to relax rules for free range egg production.

Under a proposal outlined in Melbourne last Wednesday night(16th June), hens will allowed to be de-beaked as a matter or course, they can be locked up in sheds for 25 weeks and the stocking density can increase from 1500 to a massive 20,000 birds per hectare.

Lateline Report: From Farm to Fork

25 March 2010
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Reporter: Karen Barlow

Descriptions such as free range, farm fresh and free trade are used to attract consumers eyes and allay animal welfare concerns, but many are stuck on food with little scrutiny.

Transcript:
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The saying goes you are what you eat, but do you really know what you're eating?

Descriptions such as "Free Range", "Organic", "Environmental", and "Farm Fresh" are used to attract consumer's eyes and allay concerns about animal welfare.

Green fridge labelled a fraud

17 March 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald
by Melissa Singer

AN ELECTRONICS manufacturer with a history of making false environmental claims has been caught doctoring fridges to make them appear more energy efficient.

LG Electronics has agreed to compensate potentially thousands of consumers after two of its fridges - models L197NFS and P197WFS - were found to contain an illegal device that activates an energy-saving mode when it detects room conditions similar to those in a test laboratory.

Too green to be true? ACCC investigations into carbon neutral claims

3 February 2010
Eco Voice
by Mallesons Stephen Jaques

On 16 January 2008, the ACCC released an Issues paper entitled “The Trade Practices Act and carbon offset claims.” The paper identifies particular types of claims as to carbon neutrality in advertising that the ACCC considers to be problematic for the purposes of Part V of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA).

The ACCC is inviting stakeholders to comment on these issues with the eventual aim of developing a guide for business and consumers on “green” advertising.

Go Greenwash with Envi

July 2009
www.bindarri.com.au

Q - how do you sell woodchipped Australian native forest to an Australian market who is becoming more environmentally aware?

A - buy some offset credits and launch Australia's first carbon neutral paper.

Go Greenwash with ENVI

Australian Paper (AP), the manufacturer of ENVI has had a long history of sourcing fibre from native forests and has been subject to consumer boycotts.

Timber body under fire over climate aid claims

27 July 2009
The Age
by Adam Morton

A timber industry body is being investigated over claims it misled the public by asserting that buying wood products helps the fight against climate change.

The consumer watchdog has asked Forest & Wood Products Australia to respond to allegations it made two deceptive claims: that the carbon dioxide stored in trees is locked up when they are logged and converted into wood products, and that forestry is one of Australia's most greenhouse-friendly industries.

Beyond pathetic is BP's dumping of alternatives

2 July 2009
The Age
by Julian Lee

Is it any wonder that people are cynical about marketing when a company like BP decides that after a decade of trying to be the nice guy it can now relax and just be itself?

Yes, it no longer needs to pretend that it is anything but a producer of oil and gas - with a nice little sideline in alternative energy. It no longer has to bear the slings and arrows of environmentalists accusing it of greenwash for extensively promoting clean energy initiatives that were wholly disproportionate to its actual investment in those programs.

ExxonMobil 'funding climate sceptics'

3 July 2009
ABC AM
By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici

ExxonMobil says it funds organisations on all sides of the climate change debate.

The world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups that continue to question the cause and effects of global warming.

The Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE) claims ExxonMobil has reneged on a promise to end financial support to the groups.

AVAAZ to launch spoof advertisement targeting EXXON greenwash

24 April 2009
AVAAZ

As Obama opens a new round of global climate talks in Washington DC next week, oil companies are flooding the US Capitol with lobbyists—and US airwaves with misleading climate ads.

Avaaz is filming a spoof ad that looks and sounds just like Exxon's—except that it's an Avaaz actor telling the truth about climate change and oil-company obstruction. (Check out clips from the real Exxon ad, and photos from the set of Avaaz's new one, in the video on the right.)

State's cheap timber sales 'undermine native forest policy'

The Age
5 April 2009
by Carmel Egan

The State Government has been accused of undermining its own forests policy by selling off native hardwood timbers for as little as $2.50 a tonne.

VicForests, the State Government's forest industry arm, has been undercutting commercial plantation pulp wood suppliers by selling off native forest timber harvested in East Gippsland for between $2.50 and $6 a tonne.

Commercial hardwood timber is sold for between $38 to $60 a tonne.