Nick Major chairs global institute for feed emissions database

27 January 2021

ForFarmers’ Corporate Affairs Director Nick Major has recently been elected as the new Chair of the GFLI (Global Feed LCA Institute). Before we pop Nick three questions that are on our minds, first a brief introduction to the GFLI.

GFLI, a global initiative

The GFLI is a global feed industry initiative, determined to establish an accepted standard database of the emissions that are suitable for feed materials. The GFLI is a new initiative, and will grow over the next years to fully support the feed and livestock sectors to achieve more sustainable, low-carbon animal protein production. Its purpose is to develop a publicly available Animal Nutrition Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) database and tool. Supporting the assessment of e.g. animal feeds and stimulating continuous improvement of the carbon footprint of the feed industry is then one of the outcomes. GFLI has the ambition to be embraced as the global reference for Feed LCA data by the public and private sectors, researches, industry and governmental bodies.

Contribute to a more sustainable feed industry

Nick Major

Nick, congratulations on your election of Chair. You have already previously served as GFLI’s Vice-Chair during the past year. How do you feel about your new role in GFLI?
“Having been involved in the development of GFLI I am naturally delighted to have been asked to Chair the Board. The GFLI is an important global feed industry initiative to establish an accepted standard database of the emissions for all of the widely used feed materials. I am sure we can contribute to a more sustainable feed and livestock sector.”

What will you be focussing on as the new Chair?
“Having launched the database and LCA tool, the focus for the next 12 months is to develop a number of projects to add new feed materials. For example the feed industry in Brazil is very keen to ensure we have more accurate information on soy, particularly when it comes to how we account for land use change. Also, we want to ensure we have many more co-products and by-products included in the database and tool.”

Would you say that it is important for ForFarmers to have the Chair in the GFLI?
“We recently launched our new sustainability strategy Going Circular as part of the Build to Grow strategy. In this context we often talk about ‘taking a leadership position’. I am asked what this means, and our involvement like this in the GFLI is a good example. Not only does GFLI help ForFarmers to achieve its ambitions to reduce emissions from the feed materials we use, but this is about improving the performance of the whole industry.”

Read the recent GFLI press release about four large Dutch companies in the feed industry being the first to join the GFLI.