Researchers from York University and Edinburgh University
analysed the global food system using data from the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organisation.
It
found that the world's population consumes around 10% more food than
it needs and almost 9% is thrown away or left to spoil.
The
researchers looked at losses at different stages in the production
process and found that almost half of all harvested crops - or 2.1
billion tonnes - are lost, taking into account inefficiencies in
production processes as well as consumer waste and over-consumption.
The
study again stressed the inefficiency of livestock production, which
it said produced losses of 78% on harvested crops. They found that
around 1.08 billion tonnes of harvested crops are used to produce 240
million tonnes of edible animal products including meat, milk and
eggs.
In
2015 a UN report found if the amount of food wasted was reduced by
only 25 per cent there would be enough to feed all the people who are
malnourished.
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