My understanding is that they get into the soil and can then get into the plants. Then into your body.

Depends, but most will wash off.

A tractor isn't driving there nearly as frequently as cars on a road though. Also, I would imagine tractor tires are far harder and sturdier than road tires. They're driving slow, and there's no need to shed material to stick to the road like with road tires.

I have no knowledge of any of this, but tractors seem like they wouldn't be much of an issue in my mind.

Not much besides crab grass will grow within 3 feet of our roads anyway because they literally salt the earth all winter with insane amounts of road de-icer in our part of the country. The only places that get a slight reprieve are homes near reservoirs or when it gets too cold for the melt temp and they switch to sand.

It’s also why cars don’t last much more than 10 years unless undercoated and carefully maintained and cleaned all winter.

yeah tbf i would not wanna eat anything that close to sidewalk anyway. dogs pee and poop there

Not exclusively.

Can rubber not be abraded into small particles?

(assuming you don’t always buy organic at the farmers market)?

you remember we're a bunch of weirdos here on the fediverse, right? i live in a city, right on the edge of farm country, and i go bike out to farms and flirt/banter/barter BBQ with the farmers until they let me buy a couple logs of wood off their orchard so's i can smoke with local apple and peach. the only time i get produce from the grocery store and not the fruit stand/farmer's market is when (a) my mother drops by any extra she's picked up, (b) they don't have kumquats at the local fruit stands and i don't want to drive out 45 minutes out to the good tree and pick 3 kumquats offa one of my favorite brunch spot's kumquat trees, or (c) i forget c but I swear it exists. i gotta plant me a kumquat tree.

Ah, yes, a field where any single square foot may be run over by a tire about 2 dozen times per year obviously has the same rubber exposure as a road.

Quit with the dumb, snarky retort. It doesn't make you look smart, it does the opposite.

Proximity to roads not only exposes a garden to tire dust, but also the asphalt can leech into the soil and be absorbed by the plants. Plus there's the volatiles in car exhausts.

It's common gardening advice to keep gardens at least 30ft from roads to prevent these problems. It's far better to grow vegetable in the bacl yard instead.

From low-speed, light vehicles? I can't imagine it would be significant compared to farms on the interstate with 50,000+ lb (25,000 kg) trucks going 70+ mph (110 km/h) nearby.

It's going to vary a lot depending on the road, specifically traffic volume and speed. Or, a four way stop where loads of drivers slam their brakes right in front of your property would probably also be pretty detrimental. For a quiet neighborhood street it would be paranoid worrying about micro plastic in your cucumbers imo.