AIC joins GFLI to improve sustainability in the UK feed industry

The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), the UK’s agricultural supply trade association – became a member of the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI), bringing additional benefits to the businesses it represents in the animal feed sector.

The move supports the ambition of AIC’s Feed Executive Committee, made up of representatives of the UK animal feed sector, to drive progress on important sustainability matters.

The GFLI is an independent animal nutrition and food industry institute which develops valuable Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) databases to support “meaningful environmental assessment of animal nutrition products and stimulate continuous improvement of the environmental performance in the animal nutrition and food industry”.

AIC sought to maintain the supply of LCA-related services to its feed compounder Members by joining the institute after access to data became limited to GFLI membership organisations.

The GFLI aggregated dataset comprises well over 1,000 feed ingredient products. In February 2022, AIC produced a UK subset (version 001) listing a selection of those feed ingredients commonly used by UK-based animal feed manufacturers in formulating their rations.

The full GFLI database covers 16 environmental impact categories, with AIC’s UK subset initially covering carbon values for selected feed materials.

AIC is currently working to update its UK subset to reflect the amendments that have been made to the GFLI database since its launch.

AIC supports GFLI in establishing its targets for 2024, which include:

• Higher-tier modelling to help standardise GFLI data
• Aligning GFLI with the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), allowing companies with SBTs to use GFLI database for calculations of its Forests Land and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions
• The inclusion of new and speciality ingredients, such as roughages and organic products
• The commencement of data submissions for branded feed ingredients

James McCulloch, AIC’s head of Animal Feed, said: “Membership of the GFLI allows AIC to help drive progress on many important developments for the UK animal feed industry, supporting its sustainability credentials.

“This membership gives AIC good insight into an industry-led initiative to deliver credible and robust LCA data for the benefit of UK feed businesses and the wider food supply chain. This insight will prove invaluable when discussing food LCA data strategy in the UK with the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) and other important stakeholders operating in this space.”