SUSTAINABILITY 100 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2025 Innovative Poultry Feed Solutions: USING LCA TO MEASURE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Jess Callaghan Environmental Researcher University of Chester Innovative poultry feed solutions are being explored through collaboration between universities and industry to tackle emissions and environmental impacts in poultry production. While life cycle assessment (LCA) plays a vital role in evaluating sustainability, limitations in data and modelling accuracy pose challenges. A new project aims to overcome these barriers—but how will it address gaps in supply chain transparency and measurement precision? The urgency of feeding our expanding global population has never been clearer. With UN projections estimating a population rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and 10.3 billion by 20801, there is huge pressure to ensure long-term food security. There are increasing concerns about the environmental impact of global agri-food production, responsible for an estimated 23% of total greenhouse gas emissions.2 As a result, it’s essential for farmers and producers to adapt their methods, making evaluating these practices more critical than ever. Feed suppliers and farmers must assess their environmental impacts not only to improve sustainability, but also to meet statutory reporting requirements on the journey to a Net Zero transition. ROLE OF LCA Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool that enables the comparison of the environmental performance of production systems, helping to identify potential impacts on environmental outputs such as Global Warming Potential (measured in estimated CO2 emissions). LCA can play an important role in animal production; helping producers, retailers, policymakers, and researchers make informed decisions about management practices, feed choices and aiding the identification of the most sustainable options. By using life cycle assessment to systematically evaluate and mitigate the environmental impacts of poultry production, we can enhance the sustainability of supply chains. This proactive approach strengthens the industry's resilience while contributing to broader resilience. That’s not to say LCA doesn’t have challenges.3 An important step in the process is creating an inventory (LCI), by gathering data inputs and outputs at each production stage. This includes primary data collected directly from farms and production facilities, which can be challenging, and costly to obtain. Secondary data from existing databases, published studies, and industry reports is frequently used to fill the gaps, although can decrease the accuracy
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