The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., yesterday addressed an international gathering of stakeholders from across the pillars of research, government, civil society and industry at the launch of the FAO LEAP Guidelines on the environmental performance of feed additives in livestock supply chains. The Guidelines were developed by a working group composed of 26 experts from 15 countries to help estimate the environmental burdens associated with the production of feed additives and the environmental benefits from their use in livestock production

Welcoming the launch of the guidelines, the Minister said, “Research is critical in progressing state of the art technologies to improve both the carbon efficiency and climate resilience of Irish agriculture. For example, the “METH-ABATE” project funded by my Department and led by Teagasc is looking at the development and validation of novel technologies to reduce methane emissions from pasture based Irish agricultural systems. This includes evaluating a number of feed additives to mitigate methane emissions while simultaneously monitoring animal productivity. There is also a large industry and Government funded project called Vista Milk within which the reduction of methane emissions from the dairy herd feature strongly in it.”

Feed additives have many functions including: increasing nutrient absorption; reducing methane emissions from enteric fermentation; and reducing nutrients emissions from management and deposition of manure. Given the proliferation of environmental assessment methodologies and the need to provide evidence in support of policies on sustainable livestock production, the FAO LEAP Partnership has worked on the harmonisation of methods to assess the environmental footprint of feed additives as set out in these Guidelines.

Ireland, through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Teagasc, has been an active member of the FAO LEAP Partnership for many years and is an active supporter of research and innovation into new technologies such as feed additives.

The Minister stated, ‘‘For many countries, livestock represents a major pillar for food security, ecosystem services and GDP. In Ireland, the agri-food sector is our most important indigenous industry. Nevertheless, there are challenges ahead for the livestock sector globally and I believe that Ireland has a leadership role to play in plotting a course towards a future food production system which does not impact negatively on the environment.”

Note for Editors:

The Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in July 2012 with the goal to improve the environmental sustainability of the livestock sector through harmonized methods, metrics, and data. LEAP leads a coordinated global initiative to accelerate the sustainable development of livestock supply chain and to support coherent climate actions, while contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.

Hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), LEAP brings together the private sector, governments, academia, civil society representatives and leading experts who have a direct interest in the development of science-based, transparent and pragmatic guidance to measure and improve the environmental performance of livestock products.

Environmental performance of feed additives in livestock supply chains

The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on feed additives conducted the background research and developed the core technical content. The feed additives TAG was composed of 26 experts. These developed technical guidelines concerning the environmental impacts associated with the production of feed additives; and the effects of the use of these had on the environment impacts of livestock systems.

The aim of the methodology developed in these guidelines is to introduce a harmonized international approach for assessing the environmental footprint of feed additives in livestock supply chains while taking into consideration the impacts of their production and use all along the chain. It also aims to increase understanding of feed additives and to improve assessment of their environmental performance.

ENDS

Date Released: 22 September 2020