Arla is facing growing calls for a boycott of its products after it announced the launch of a methane-reducing feed additive trial across some of its dairy farms this week.
Several thousand social media users on X have been pledging to shun the dairy giant’s brands since Tuesday due to unsubstantiated claims the additive could be unsafe, with some also linking the product to wider conspiracy theories centring on Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum and climate change denial.
Arla’s flagship milk brand Cravendale and its leading butter brand Lurpak was trending on the social media platform today as a result.
However, the supplier has insisted the additive is safe and described the social media storm as “misinformation” and “completely false”.
In a first of its kind joint initiative with Morrisons, Tesco and Aldi, the farmer-owned dairy co-operative earlier this week said it had begun using Bovaer – which is claimed to reduce enteric methane emissions from cows on average by 27% – on about 30 of its dairy farms in the UK.
The trial aimed to provide “a better understanding of how these feed additives can be rolled out across a larger group of farmers”, Arla said, with the supplier’s UK agricultural director Paul Dover saying reducing methane was “a big opportunity when it comes to improving our carbon footprint at farm level”.
Read more: Arla collaborates with retailers on methane-reducing feed trial
In the UK, methane represented some 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, with the main sources coming from agriculture, waste and the fuel supply sectors, according to Defra.
Bovaer is made by Dutch/Swiss life sciences company DSM Firmenich – and has no link to an unrelated methane-cutting feed additive developed by a company in which Bill Gates has invested.
It had “huge potential in helping us tackle this issue”, Dover added. The trial is part of Arla’s FarmAhead Customer Partnership – which feeds into its plans to reduce CO2e emissions by 30% per kilo of milk by 2030.
But the launch of the trial and Arla’s promotion of it on social media has generated an outcry, with thousands of X users calling for boycotts of major Arla brands such as Cravendale and Lurpak, as well as its retail partners on the trial, with others also highlighting concerns with similar methane-cutting feed additive projects run by rival supermarkets.
Responding to the social media storm today, an Arla spokesperson said “the information spreading online surrounding our link to Bill Gates is completely false and claims relating to his involvement in our products is inaccurate”.
The health and safety of both consumers and animals “is always our number one priority”, they added.
“Bovaer has already been extensively and safely used across Europe and at no point during the trial will there be any impact on the milk we produce as it does not pass from the cow into the milk,” the spokesperson insisted.
“Regulatory bodies, such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and UK Food Standards Agency, have approved its use based on evidence that it does not harm the animals or negatively impact their health, productivity, or the quality of milk.”
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