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These countries are the biggest food wasters around the world

The world wastes an incredible amount of food every year — 2.9 trillion pounds to be exact, according to the United Nations.

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To put that in perspective, that's the same weight as about 120.8 million elephants, 36.2 million 18-wheelers, or 7.2 million blue whales.

Food waste activist Tristram Stuart has traveled to every continent (except Antarctica) to figure out why the world throws away a third of the food it produces. "Food waste is a systemic problem. There is waste at every stage of the supply chain and the reasons behind it are complex and interrelated," he tells Tech Insider.

Farms often throw away perfectly good crops because of cosmetic standards set by supermarkets, he explains. And farmers are reluctant to fight the grocer giants, because their livelihoods depend on the contracts. As consumers, we give that power to supermarkets because we only buy unbruised produce.

As noted by National Geographic, some regions (usually the more developed ones) are more guilty than others. Check out how they rank below and which foods they waste the most, based on a recent report by the UN.

TI_Graphics_food waste regions map
Skye Gould/Tech Insider
Food Sustainability
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