The results of recent studies on food product life cycles (including LCA studies carried out by INALCA), confirm that on average less than 20% of environmental impacts expressed as carbon footprint and water footprint derives from the “process” phase, or from the actual production of the product, compared with more than 70% of impact caused by the production stages of agricultural raw materials.

Distribution of environmental impacts in the hamburger supply chain

Good agricultural practices

Based on these conditions, for INALCA the involvement of their breeders in the pursuit of environmental improvement objectives is indispensable. For this purpose, INALCA participates actively and promotes the use of voluntary standards and best agricultural practices in order to increase the sustainability of the production chain as a whole, while at the same time increasing efficiency and competitiveness.

Measuring sustainability
in agricultural companies

Specifically, for the analysis of sustainability in farms, INALCA uses the FSA (Farm Sustainability Assessment), a tool developed by the not-for-profit organisation SAI Platform with our input, and the LCA studies based on the methodology defined by the EPD© System.