The AGRIBALYSE Program: the French Life Cycle Inventory Initiative to Support Sustainability in the Agricultural and Food System

Abstract

AGRIBALYSE is a French program dedicated to producing Life cycle inventories（LCI）of agricultural products. The program focused on developing a consensual LCA methodology and providing a homogenous LCI database of French agricultural products, to support environmental labelling policies and to help the agricultural sector to improve its practices. AGRIBALYSE v1.3 database is available since 2017, containing about 150 agricultural product LCIs. A calculation tool, Means-InOut is also available. The partners are working to improve and enlarge the database. One challenge is to define the best level of accuracy, considering the different needs of users（from specific assessment of agricultural systems to diet assessment）. We plan to enlarge the database scope, from the farm stage to the food industry gate, so we can cover all life cycle stages specific to food product life cycles. ADEME’s focus for coming years is to promote further the eco-design approach in the food sector, to help companies and production chains to better include environmental performance in their strategy. With this program, France contributes to a global effort on LCA development and benchmarking for the food sector. Our experience shows the positive contribution of such national LCI databases to sustainability challenges, and the importance of transparency and cooperation at the international level.