FACTBOX: How the food we eat makes climate change worse
Meat pies are pictured in a shop in London June 1, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/Files
Mon Oct 17, 2016
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The way we produce and eat food must change urgently both to cut the amount of planet-warming emissions produced by agriculture, and to help farmers adapt to climate change, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.
Without swift action, climate change will put millions of people at risk of hunger and poverty, the U.N. agency said in a report to mark World Food Day on Oct. 16.
Here are some key facts:
1. Agriculture, forestry and changes in land use combined are the second largest source of greenhouse gases, producing 21 percent of global emissions. The top emitter is the energy sector at 47 percent.
2. To feed a growing global population, agricultural production must rise by about 60 percent by 2050.
3. Climate change is expected to cut harvests in developing countries in the long term - although it may also improve some crop yields in the short term.
4. If climate change continues unchecked, it will make an additional 42 million people vulnerable to hunger in 2050, according to FAO calculations. However, that figure does not include people affected by extreme weather events such as drought or floods.
5. Small farmers, cattle herders and fishermen are the most vulnerable to climate change, and will need better access to technologies, markets, information and credit to adapt to climate change.
6. Agriculture suffered some 25 percent of the total economic losses caused by climate-related disasters in developing countries between 2003 and 2013. For drought-related disasters, the share rose to 84 percent.
7. Livestock alone produces nearly two thirds of agricultural emissions - mainly from animal burping, manure and feed production. Synthetic fertilisers are the next major contributor, producing 12 percent, and rice cultivation 10 percent.
8. Carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture are mainly caused by changes in land use, such as converting forests to pasture or cropland, and land degradation from over-grazing.
9. Most direct emissions of methane and nitrous oxide are caused by livestock flatulence, rice production in flooded fields and the use of nitrogen fertilisers and manure.
10. Nearly 50 percent of world food production depends on nitrogen fertiliser. The other half depends on nitrogen found in soil, animal manure, nitrogen-fixing plants, crop residues, wastes and compost.
11. More than a third of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. Rotting food produces methane, which is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
12. Deforestation and forest degradation account for about 11 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than the world's entire transport sector.
13. Reducing agriculture emissions depends partly on cutting food waste and loss, as well as shifting people's diets - including consuming less animal products - and changing farming practices.
Source: FAO 2016 State of Food and Agriculture report
(Reporting by Alex Whiting, editing by Megan Rowling.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
he injunction order handed down against the public screening of Prasanna Vithanage’s latest movie Silence in the Courts has opened up space to question the function of Justice in Sri Lanka. The movie is said to be based on a true story about a Magistrate suspected of sexually abusing a woman as a favour for releasing her husband from remand custody. With the Injunction Order, there has been increased publicity about this issue even before the wider public have seen the actual movie. Much of the critical debate surrounding the movie has tended to focus on the censorship of the film and while this is an important question, we believe the silencing of Silence in the Courts offers us an opportunity to enter a much larger debate about the function of justice in Sri Lanka. Therefore, in this article we want to examine the nature of the methods used by citizens of this country to seek justice, when the courts are unresponsive to their pleas for redress. 
injustices that they face. More recently, there has also been an increased reliance on social media to highlight the daily experiences of injustice faced by the common person. This reliance speaks to a way of seeking justice that bypasses the unnecessary trouble that people must endure in pursuing justice through the ‘proper’ mechanisms. In other words, in the absence of faith in the judiciary, it is possible to notice an increasing reliance on the media as a mediator between Police and the citizen. However, as to whether the media’s intervention promotes or hinders the pursuit of justice remains an open question. 
unnecessary legal snags. The Commissioners also ensured that everybody in the Commission had always acted in accordance with the rule of law. We knew that the accused should be given all the opportunities to clear their names as has been provided in the law because corruption was regarded as one of the most difficult crimes to investigate. We knew nobody should tell us how to decide a case. Our duty was to submit transparent reports if those who were investigated are guilty to be dealt with suitably by law. CIABOC has powers to institute legal action and why shouldn’t they do the right thing according to the law? If so who is responsible for suppressing corruption investigation? Hypocrisy?