Up to 50 percent of all food on Earth left uneaten

No one eats nearly a half of all food - from 30% to 50% - grown and produced in the world, which is almost 2 billion tons a year, experts from the British Society of Mechanical Engineers said in their study, according to the BBC.

Excess food appears as a result of a combination of several factors: bad harvest collection, improper storage conditions, the absence of strict control over the sale of expired products and profligate of consumers.

For example, up to 30% of vegetables in the UK are left to rot on the fields, because they are not sufficiently attractive in their appearance.

The authors of the study consider this situation tragic. According to them, mankind should think about a strategy of a reasonable diet, taking into consideration the fact that the global population will grow by three billion people by 2075, according to UN projections.

Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization published the Food Price Index. In 2012, it decreased by 7% to 212 points. The index has been decreasing for three months. In December, compared with November, it fell by 1.1% due to lower world prices on basic grains, as well as vegetable oils and fats.

2012 saw most significant reduction in indices of prices on sugar (17.1%), dairy products (14.5%) and vegetable oil (10.7%). Prices on cereals and meat dropped by 2.4% and 1.1% respectively.

According to Jomo Sundaram, the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, "the result is due to the turning point of the situation in July of last year, when a sudden rise in price caused concerns about the possibility of a new food crisis."

"However, international coordination, and a drop in demand in the stagnant world economy contributed to the short-lived rise in prices. These factors have led to the stabilization of the market situation, which ultimately contributed to the decline in prices to the levels lower than during the previous year," he said.