Greenpeace Aotearoa is celebrating a win against intensive dairy greenwash, as Fonterra admits that it broke the law with misleading packaging on Anchor butter, sold between Dec 2023 and April 2025.
In September 2024, Greenpeace Aotearoa filed a lawsuit against Fonterra Brands for breaching the Fair Trading Act by using misleading packaging to sell its Anchor butter.
Greenpeace spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn says, “This is an open-and-shut case of greenwashing. Fonterra claimed that its Anchor Butter was ‘100% New Zealand Grass-Fed’, but that isn’t true. Fonterra dairy cows can be fed up to 3 kilograms of palm kernel a day – an imported feed linked to rainforest destruction.
“Palm kernel is a dry, gravelly cow feed that comes from the destroyed paradise rainforests of Southeast Asia. It isn’t grass, and to claim otherwise is misleading and deceptive.”
The Anchor Butter packaging had a prominently displayed logo with the words ‘100% New Zealand Grass-Fed’, a claim inconsistent with the fact that Fonterra cows can be fed up to 3kg of palm kernel expeller every day.
New Zealand is the world’s largest importer of palm kernel, importing more than 2 million tonnes every year primarily to feed Fonterra’s dairy herd.
Deighton-O’Flynn says, “This admission from the world’s biggest dairy exporter is a win against corporate greenwash. It exposes the cynicism of Fonterra and its intensive dairy model: instead of ending its links to rainforest destruction, Fonterra just slapped a...
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