Agribalyse, a collective project

Co-piloted by ADEME and INRAE, the AGRIBALYSE® program also relied on a hundred partners and experts, in particular within technical institutes and engineering consultants.

Co-piloted by ADEME and INRAE, relying on the collaboration of agricultural and agrifood technical institutes, the AGRIBALYSE® program has existed for over 10 years.

The gradual construction of the database brought together around a hundred French and international experts in the agricultural, agrifood and environmental sectors.

The construction of the database mobilized several types of skills: life cycle analysis (LCA) and environmental sciences, agronomic and zoo-technical knowledge, knowledge of the sectors (stages of transformation, logistics, distribution), management of databases, etc. The methodologies and data were developed in the framework of a partnership ensuring their quality and transparency.

The first version of the database, published in 2014, focused on the impacts related to agricultural production. It was then gradually enriched and now includes all the sectors and stages of the food chain: processing (ACYVIA project), logistics (storage, transport, distribution), and the culinary preparation of dishes (cooking, defrosting). Data from other international initiatives (Ecoinvent, World Food Database, Product Environmental Footprint,) were also used.

For the production of the current version 3.0, the main developments have been shared between INRAE ​​for the agricultural products and consultants experts in Life Cycle Analysis for the food chain values (Gingko 21, Sayari, Blonk consultants).

Work is continuing: methodological improvements and the development of new data are expected in the coming years.

Since September 2021, the governance of Agribalyse has evolved into a SIG (Scientific Interest Group) : the SIG Revalim. The database retains its name (AGRIBALYSE) and remains the property of ADEME. The members of the steering committee are now as follows:

Founders:

• French agency for ecological transition (ADEME)

• France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE)

• French technical institutes for agriculture and food industries (reprsented by ACTA and ACTIA)

Invited members:

• French ministry of ecological and solidarity-basd transition (MTES)

• French ministry of agriculture and food (MAA)

• Agroscope representing international similar initiatives