Climate Change Interacts with Plastic Stressors and Amplifies Food Insecurity

Abstract

Climate change and plastic pollution are escalating global stressors that interact in complex ways to undermine food security. Climate-driven shifts in temperature, precipitation, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events reduce agricultural yields, destabilize fisheries and aquaculture, and weaken the resilience of food systems. Simultaneously, the proliferation of plastics, from macroplastics to micro- and nanoplastics, contaminates soils, freshwater, and marine environments, impairing nutrient utilization, reducing food safety, and transporting hazardous chemicals through food chains. When combined, these stressors exert synergistic effects that amplify physiological stress in crops, livestock, and aquatic organisms, while accelerating plastic fragmentation and dispersal. The resulting impacts compromise all four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Vulnerable communities face the greatest risks due to limited adaptive capacity and high dependence on natural resources. This chapter synthesizes pathways through which climate change and plastic stressors interact, highlights case studies from key food systems, and discusses implications for human health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It proposes integrated mitigation and adaptation strategies spanning agriculture, aquaculture, waste management, and policy frameworks to strengthen resilience and safeguard global food systems.