Since its release in 2014, Agri-footprint has become the world’s leading Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database in the agri-food sector. Known for its high-quality data and global scale, it is an increasingly important source of information for experts working on environmental assessment of the agricultural value chain. These experts represent key stakeholders from the private sector, the scientific community, and governmental authorities, who are unified in their mission of building a more sustainable future. As such, we are excited and proud to announce that the newest version of Agri-footprint is here to enable that mission. There are many additions to this update, but most notably a large expansion of animal production systems. More update details can be found below.

Agri-footprint 6 is available for purchase, where we have multiple licensing options to meet different needs. Additionally, Agri-footprint 6 is available for SimaPro users and as a paid database for openLCA, through openLCA nexus (available soon).

Animal production systems

It’s increasingly apparent that urgent efforts are needed globally to improve the impact of environmentally intense products, of which animal products rank highly. As such, we largely expanded our animal farming datasets to provide thorough environmental information on major animal products, using experience and knowledge from projects we have performed over the past years. The newly added datasets include:

• Dairy: Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, New Zealand, United States.
• Pig breeding and fattening: Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, North America, Europe.
• Broiler breeding and fattening: France, the Netherlands, China, Japan, Thailand, Brazil, United States.
• Pullet rearing and egg production: the Netherlands, North America, Europe.

The datasets have been developed with state-of-the-art methodology and data sources. Emissions calculations were performed using our Animal Production System (APS) Footprint tool (APS-footprint), which enables consistent use of up-to-date LCA methodology. The Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) are mostly based on secondary data, from sources such as peer review publications, Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM) databases and National Inventory Reports (NIR). Together with experts we reviewed and improved the data.

Improvements of the dairy datasets

The dairy datasets were developed in parallel with the EF 3.0 agri-food database development in collaboration with the European Dairy Association (EDA). These datasets were reviewed by regional dairy production experts, increasing reliability and representativeness. The cooperation with EDA is intended to be the basis for a continuous improvement of dairy datasets. Throughout of process of creating these country-typical benchmark data, Blonk coordinated the planning, involvement, and contribution of many stakeholders.