Red Tractor's 'Farmed with care': the standards promise the pollution data didn't back

A TV ad seen on 1 May 2023 opened with the words 'Farmed with care, that's the Red Tractor way' over a shopper's trolley, then walked viewers through a dairy barn: 'Our cows have a health plan, and a personal vet, from field to store all our standards are met. When the Red Tractor's there, your food's farmed with care.' The environmental campaign group River Action complained that the scheme's logo guaranteed nothing about the environment.

River Action cited Environment Agency data: a February 2020 assessment found Red Tractor assured farms were responsible for 62% of category 1 and 2 pollution incidents and 56% of category 3 incidents, concluding that 'Red Tractor membership is not currently an indicator of good environmental performance'; a North Devon review found 87% of 101 farms non-compliant with regulations despite almost all being Red Tractor members.

Red Tractor argued consumers read no environmental promise into 'farmed with care': its 2019 research showed only 1 of 331 participants mentioned the environment. It also noted 97.5% of dairy farms are assured, that around 37,690 assessments a year run at 98% compliance, and that the 62% figure covered just 250 incidents across 59,013 farms over five years — 0.4%.

The ASA upheld the complaint on 15 October 2025. A significant minority of consumers would expect the scheme to manage environmental risk, and Environment Agency data from 2014 to 2024 — 10,543 inspections, 5,695 of them on Red Tractor farms, 48% not fully compliant — was enough to show the evidence was insufficient to substantiate the wider claim. The ad was likely to exaggerate the benefit of the logo and must not appear again.