AB Agri calls for agriculture industry to improve environmental impact and present a united voice

At AB Agri, we’re hoping to see others in the agricultural sector join us in adopting a standardised approach to measuring animal feed environmental footprints. As a key first step to improving sustainability, this would allow the industry to present a united approach throughout the farming community and with consumers and retailers.

With the right farm management techniques; animal nutritional choices; and the use of data, we believe that producing low emission animal proteins is achievable and well within reach. However, to make it a success, the industry must work together to develop a single, unified approach that shares one version of fact.

AB Agri’s Director of Responsibility, Angela Booth, said: “We believe agriculture can achieve net zero and are committed to helping our industry get there. It will be a challenge, but we consider an important first step is to measure the environmental impact of what we, as an industry, do.”

One way of achieving this goal is by working alongside Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI). AB Agri is calling on the agricultural sector to join it in backing the independent animal nutrition and food industry institute as it develops a publicly available Animal Nutrition Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) database. This will support a more sustainable low-carbon animal production system.

“The GFLI data shows that not all animal nutritional products are created equal: there is significant variation in emissions associated with different feed choices. However, the goal of producing low emission animal proteins is well within our grasp as an industry,” adds Nell.

“To do this well and build confidence and credibility throughout the farming community and with consumers and retailers, our industry must create a single, unified approach to assessing the environmental impact of animal nutrition products. Mixed or conflicting messages confuse people and make them far less likely to believe messaging and engage with sustainable approaches.”

We believe GFLI already offers the industry the best available data for feed and wants to help increase the quality and breadth of feed ingredient data by encouraging wider participation. Therefore, it is encouraging everyone across the industry to use the GFLI data – which is free to access – to make better informed decisions and improve their practices and processes.