Lifecycles’ Director Tim Grant attended the 15th International LCA Food Conference in Montréal from 12 to 15 October 2026, and shared his reflections at the October ALCAS monthly webinar. These are the developments he expects to shape how food and agricultural products are assessed.
For years, packaging dominated LCA practice outside construction. Tim believes that has changed. In his words, "food is the new packaging."
Around 500 people attended the four-day conference. Construction still leads commercial LCA activity, but food and agriculture now drive much of the new method development, research and policy work. No LCA conference of comparable size exists for textiles, electronics or packaging.
Microplastics have a climate footprint
One study examined the ocean's biological carbon pump. Zooplankton graze on phytoplankton and produce faecal pellets that sink, carrying carbon to the deep ocean where it is stored long term. When zooplankton ingest microplastics, they take up less carbon and their pellets sink more slowly, so more of that carbon returns to the water before it reaches depth.
The researchers estimate characterisation factors of around 1 kg CO₂-e per kg of plastic emitted to the ocean. LDPE has a production footprint of around 2 kg CO₂-e per kg, so LDPE that ends up in the ocean could add roughly 50% to its climate impact.
Other plastics research is moving just as quickly:
Natural fibres are not off the hook. Cotton and cellulosic microfibres appear to be as harmful as microplastics once ingested by marine organisms. Their advantage is that fewer reach the environment and they degrade faster. Microplastic models are effectively becoming microparticle models.
Leakage is becoming easier to model. Researchers working through the Plastic Footprint Network, largely at CIRAIG in Montréal, have developed country-based leakage factors. These estimate how much plastic from uncontrolled waste management ends up in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments.
Tyre and road wear is a major source. Outside direct dumping, it is one of the largest contributors to plastic leakage. It already appears in ecoinvent as a flow but is not yet linked to a plastics impact indicator
Agriculture's albedo dividend
Not every finding works against food producers. Cropland and pasture are generally more reflective than the forests and natural vegetation they replaced, which produces a cooling effect. One study estimated the climate impact of annual agricultural land occupation at around 15.7 Gt CO₂-e, with albedo offsetting around 2.4 Gt CO₂-e of that. Tim doesn't expect this to appear in carbon accounts any time soon, but the result shows land use effects on climate run in both directions.
Australia should be a data point, not a gap
Several sessions focused on extrapolating agricultural inventories. A study of sustainable diets might need data for 30 key foods from 50 supplying countries, and data rarely exists for every combination. New methods identify the parameters that matter most, typically yield and nitrogen use, then adapt those for each country. A French project developing guidelines for adapting national inventories drew on Lifecycles' earlier work, led by Paul-Antoine Bontinck, adapting the Agribalyse database to Australian conditions.
Tim presented in this session with a clear message. European and US agricultural data does not translate well to Australian conditions. Australian industries need to supply their own data, so Australia becomes a definitive point in global datasets rather than a gap filled by extrapolation. This is the focus of Lifecycles' work with Australian agricultural industries, including the LCAgMetrics project that expanded AusLCI with on-farm data.
Climate is no longer the only indicator
Most commercial LCA work still centres on climate change. At LCA Food, climate shared the agenda with biodiversity, ecosystem services, water footprints and microplastics. Many presenters used IMPACT World+, a regionalised impact assessment method developed in Québec that models results through to endpoint damage on human health and ecosystems.
How far should regionalisation go?
Regionalised characterisation factors are becoming more common, and Australia already has catchment-level factors for water and eutrophication. Research led by Thomas Nemecek at Agroscope tested how much regional factors change results across around 200 crops. For acidification, the quantity emitted drove the result more than the regional factor. For biodiversity, the regional factor mattered more than the area of land occupied. For most indicators, higher yields meant lower impacts.
Water drew similar debate. The AWARE method uses marginal factors: the impact of using a little more water in a catchment that is already stressed. In the Murray-Darling Basin, those factors sit close to the method's maximum of 100. One proposal argued that industries using a large share of a catchment's water, such as sugar or cotton, should use a factor reflecting the share of the curve they actually occupy. Lifecycles has applied a commodity-specific approach for the Australian cotton industry, which accounts for reduced plantings in drought years.
Feed matters more than food
Animal feed drew more attention than food for people. For chickens, pigs and farmed fish, feed dominates the footprint, and supply chain pressure on aquaculture is driving new certification and data work. In one study, black soldier fly-based feed for trout had a higher climate impact per kilogram of live weight gain than a conventional diet.
What this means for Australian producers
Prepare for questions beyond carbon. Methods for biodiversity, water and microplastics are maturing quickly, particularly in food and agriculture.
Check where your data comes from. Results built on extrapolated overseas data may not reflect Australian farming systems. Australian datasets such as AusLCI exist to close that gap.
Expect more regional detail. Catchment-level factors change results significantly for some indicators and barely at all for others. Knowing which is which matters.
Want to know what these developments mean for your products? Talk to our team about building Australian data into your food or agricultural LCA.