BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — A consortium of feed organizations expect to publish this year the first version of the Feed Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) Recommendations and guidance document, the consortium said on Feb. 5.
The European Feed Manufacturer’s Federation (FEFAC) and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) set up a consortium in 2011 to collaborate on environmental footprinting. The FEFAC and AFIA consortium together with the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), has joined the UN FAO-led Partnership on benchmarking and monitoring the environmental performance of livestock supply chains. 
“With the need to reduce the impact of livestock products on the environment, being able to measure the impacts associated with feed using a sound and harmonized methodology is a first step to initiate mitigations options,” said Joel Newman, AFIA’s president and chief executive officer. 
“These recommendations are meant to respond to the need of feed operators and to the demand of feed customers such as the dairy and meat sectors,” said Patrick Vanden Avenne, FEFAC’s president.
The interim version of the FEFAC and AFIA Feed LCA Recommendations will be presented at the 4th Global Feed and Food Congress organized by IFIF in South Africa in April 2013. 
These recommendations are being developed in accordance with the main international standards and guidelines and take place in the framework of the FAO’s partnership which aims at improving how the environmental impacts of livestock products are measured. They will be complemented by a database of the GHG emissions of the major processed feed ingredients.
“The sustainable development of global livestock production is one of the key priorities for IFIF,” said Mario Cutait, IFIF’s chairman. “IFIF welcomes these Feed LCA Recommendations which represent an important first step towards a globally harmonized industry standard for feed LCA”.