Around the world, plastics are finding their way into farm fields -- coated over the ground in fertilizer, wrapped around seeds, stretched as tarps to lock in moisture and as plastic waste from other industries. In Uganda, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city. It's a problem that has long littered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where buveera are woven into the fabric of daily life. They show up in layers of excavated dirt roads and clog waterways. But now, they can be found in remote areas of farmland, too. Some of the debris includes the thick plastic bags used for planting coffee seeds in nurseries. Around the world, plastics find their way into farm fields. Climate change makes agricultural plastic, already a necessity for many crops, even more unavoidable for some farmers. Meanwhile, research continues to show that itty-bitty microplastics alter ecosystems and end up in human bodies. Scientists, farmers and consumers all worry about how that's affecting human health, and many seek solutions. But industry experts say it’s difficult to know where plastic ends up or get rid of it completely, even with the best intentions of reuse and recycling programs. According to a 2021 report on plastics in agriculture by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics. Some studies have estimated that soils are more polluted by microplastics than the oceans. “Microplastic is a very big challenge. We experience so many plastics and that is brought up by the reason of having so many plastic factories or industries of bottling companies for water for juice and then for energy drinks so they process so many plastics,” said Nicholas Kayondo who is a crop scientist and a farmer in the outskirt of the Ugandan Capital Kampala. Some farmers say agricultural plastic, already a necessity for many crops, is becoming even more necessary as climate change fuels extreme weather. But for those tending the fields that microplastics end up in, there's a growing sense of frustration. Scientists, farmers and consumers all worry about how the plastics that enter the food supply affect health, and research is continuing to show that it's ending up in human bodies. “We know that microplastics are in our bodies – in our lungs, in our brains – they’ve been found in a variety of places. What is ongoing research now is what the impact of that is,” said Sarah Zack, an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Great Lakes Contaminant Specialist who communicates about microplastics to the public. “One of the potential issues is that there are other chemicals, potentially toxic chemicals, that adhere onto microplastics and can be moved around in the environment and our bodies through those microplastics.” Researchers are looking for solutions, but industry experts say despite attempts to tackle the plastic problem, it's difficult to know where plastic ends up or get rid of it completely, even with the best intentions of improving reuse and recycling programs. Micro-particles of plastic that come from items like clothes, medications and beauty products sometimes appear in fertilizer made from the solid byproducts of wastewater treatment — called biosolids — which can also be smelly and toxic to nearby residents depending on the treatment process used. Some seeds are coated in plastic polymers designed to strategically disintegrate at the right time of the season, used in containers to hold pesticides or stretched over fields to lock in moisture. But the agriculture industry itself only accounts for a little over three percent of all plastics used globally. About 40% of all plastics are used in packaging, including single-use plastic food and beverage containers. Microplastics, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines as being smaller than five millimeters long, are their largest at about the size of a pencil eraser. Some are much smaller. Studies have already shown that microplastics can be taken up by plants on land or plankton in the ocean and subsequently eaten by animals or humans. Scientists are still studying the long-term effects of the plastic that's been found in human organs, but early findings suggest possible links to a host of health conditions including heart disease and some cancers. The use of plastics has quadrupled over the past 30 years. Plastic is ubiquitous. And most of the world's plastic goes to landfills, pollutes the environment or is burned. Less than 10% of plastics are recycled. At the same time, some farmers are becoming more reliant on plastics to shelter crops from the effects of extreme weather. They're using tarps, hoop houses and other technology to try to control conditions for their crops. And they're depending more on chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers to buffer against unreliable weather and more pervasive pest issues.