Feed manufacturers can now use Life Cycle Analysis

Hans Blonk, Director of Blonk Consultants, reviewed Life Cycle Analysis for animal production systems. LCA is a scientific tool which measures the environmental impacts of products, services or organisations on damages which are grouped in three end-points : human health, ecosystems, and resource availability. Global warming is the most popular damage, but all other impact categories should be assessed. Some examples at local and global scales are land and water use, terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecotoxicity, human toxicity. Methodologies for life cycle assessment follow international standards. In 2018, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEFCR) of animal feeds has been officially published in the European Union. A common guidance is now available for feed manufacturers. In parallel, the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) is an international consortium to develop a Feed LCA database and tool to support meaningful environmental assessment of livestock products.