The development of environmental measurement rules for the production of animal feed across the EU has entered its concluding phase with the launch of a “final” public consultation on draft recommendations produced by Europe’s feed sector leaders and EU officials, following three years of work on the issue.
The feed project is part of the EU’s development of a Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) which will eventually measure the environmental performance of any kind of product throughout its life cycle.
In this context, the feed PEF is designed to prescribe the specific product category methodological requirements (PEFCR) for the production of feed for food-producing animals, work which has been backed by nine EU and national feed sector associations and now fewer than 13 major EU-based feed companies.
Having already run public consultations in 2014 and 2015, the technical secretariat behind the feed PEF pilot has now launched a final consultation running from now until September 9, 2016, to gather feedback on its updated draft PEFCR.
“Available environmental studies and life cycle assessments have shown that feed production is a significant contributor to the environmental footprint of animal products and therefore an important element to take into account when considering mitigation options,” states Fefac, the European animal feed body, in its website explanation of PEFCR.
“Without a sound analysis of the impacts of animal feed, it is nearly impossible to establish the PEF of animal products such a meat, eggs, dairy products and fish. PEFCRs for food-producing animals should therefore use the same methodological approaches for the production of feed in their lifecycle studies.”
See previous report on the environmental footprinting of animal feed
Access European Commission information on the PEFCR consultation
