How Life Cycle Assessment Is Evolving in Food Systems

What led me to LCA was the need to better quantify financed emissions and identify credible reduction pathways. In that context, LCA stood out as one of the most rigorous and structured ways to connect operational, upstream, and downstream emissions to real economic activity across the food value chain.

What initially appeared to be a technical input quickly revealed broader potential. In agri-food systems, where emissions are distributed across inputs, production, processing, and distribution, this perspective is particularly relevant. At the same time, LCA is not a complete solution in itself. Its application needs to align with broader accounting and reporting frameworks, such as the GHG Protocol, particularly when used for target setting, sustainability reporting, or financed emissions.

This creates a tension between methodological depth and standardization, but also an opportunity to better connect environmental results with organizational needs.

Working more closely with LCA practitioners and organizations across the agri-food value chain, one observation stands out: it is no longer only about methodology. It is increasingly about how the results reflect operational realities, and how they can inform decisions.

This perspective is also reflected in the experience of colleagues who have been working with LCA for many years. As I was discussing with my colleague, Hugues, he has observed through AGÉCO’s work with industry associations, cooperatives, processors, and other organizations in the food sector, that many users are no longer looking only for environmental measurements. They are asking how those measurements can support decisions, prioritize action, and demonstrate progress over time.

Sector organizations want to understand where collective initiatives can generate meaningful improvements. Cooperatives are looking to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability programs and track progress across their membership. Processors and food companies need information that can support reporting requirements while also informing operational and strategic decisions.

Across these types of projects, the conversation is gradually shifting from “What are the impacts?” to “What should we do with this information?”

That shift creates new expectations for LCA practitioners. Producing technically sound results remains essential, but it is no longer sufficient on its own. Results also need to be understandable, actionable, and aligned with the decision-making context in which they will be used.

This will be one of the central themes of our panel at LCA Food 2026.

As part of the organizing team at Groupe AGÉCO, we want the discussion to reflect perspectives from across the food value chain, from crop and livestock production, through processing, and ultimately to retail, reporting, and governance. The objective is not only to discuss methods, but to explore how LCA can create value at each stage and where better alignment is still needed between data, methods, standards, and decision-making.

Some of the questions we hope to explore include:

• How can LCA results better inform farm-level programs, processing decisions, and strategic planning?
• How should LCA be used alongside frameworks such as the GHG Protocol and other reporting standards?

Several priorities stand out for the continued development of LCA in food systems: better access to high-quality, context-specific data; stronger collaboration across the value chain; clearer links between assessment results and decisions; and improved alignment with complementary reporting frameworks.

Ultimately, the value of LCA depends less on the tool itself than on how effectively it is integrated into decision-making.

If you work with LCA or in food systems more broadly, we would be interested in hearing your perspective.

We hope you will join us to continue the conversation at LCA Food 2026!