In agricultural communities, farming equipment owners have long been battling companies such as John Deere for their “right to repair”- essentially, the right for farmers to make necessary repairs to equipment they own, instead of all repairs being handled by the company itself. This would allow farmers to avoid the hassle and expense of professional repairs, as these services are often unnecessarily costly and time-consuming.
While people unfamiliar with agriculture may assume that repairing a tractor is just a matter of fixing a tire or tinkering with an engine, the reality is far more complicated. Modern tractors run software owned by the companies that build them, and without privileged access to this software, farmers are left to wait for a company-authorized technician to reach their often remote location in order to make repairs.
Over the course of this conflict, agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere has been at the forefront of public scrutiny involving the right to repair. In 2017, eight states introduced right to repair legislation, with John Deere and other companies citing the potential dangers associated with a lack of professional expertise as justification to keep the status quo intact. More information on those proposed bills can be found in this blog post here.
Small amounts of progress have been made since then. On July 9th, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at helping the FTC create rules to crack down on companies that have completely integrated their product repairs, thus thwarting the right to repair. The FTC responded by declaring it would commit more resources into the matter, but it remains to be seen whether this commitment will have any large effects.
During the same year, 25 states introduced right-to-repair bills. Many were spurred on by the diminishing availability of repair services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These pieces of legislation have encountered massive amounts of pushback and lobbying from companies that prefer all repairs to their products be done through their own services instead of through third party shops. Although many bills addressing this issue are being considered, only one has been successful- New York's Digital Fair Repair Act, which will only impact electronic products made or sold in-state after July 1, 2023.
Since 2017, the right to repair has become an increasingly hot topic. While the agricultural industry is a main target, these bills would also give consumers and hospitals the ability to make third-party repairs on a variety of electronic equipment ranging from phones to medical devices. As a result, right-to-repair legislation is overwhelmingly supported by a bipartisan majority. A study conducted of California residents in 2022 found that 75% of those surveyed were in favor of the right to repair- 76% of Democrats, 61% of Republicans, and 81% of independents. More reading on right to repair advocacy done by legislators such as Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Jon Tester can be found here.
Faced with the widespread popularity of the right-to-repair movement, some large agricultural companies are reconsidering their stances on the topic. In January of 2023, the American Farm Bureau Federation entered into a memorandum of understanding with John Deere to recognize a right for farmers to repair all John Deere farming equipment. The memorandum represents a commitment by John Deere to give farmers access to the tools and software of their purchased equipment. It also encourages the growth of third party repair services in the process. On its face, this memorandum appears to represent a huge shift in the agricultural industry, empowering owners to better deal with their own equipment in a way that best suits their individual situation.
However, skepticism of John Deere's earnestness in this process remains. An article posted by NPR shortly after the memorandum was announced underscores concerns from those in the agricultural field who worry the agreement didn't ensure actual follow-through from John Deere. In fact, detractors claim the memorandum may simply be an attempt to further delay the passage of right-to-repair laws currently under consideration. Ultimately, the agreement is only between the AFBF and John Deere, raising concerns that the memorandum merely represents an empty promise. The article offers this quote from Walter Schweitzer, President of the Montana Farmers Union:
If they truly, honestly wanted to give farmers and ranchers and independent repair shops the right to repair equipment, why are they so afraid of legislation that authorizes that?
If John Deere's memorandum fails to make any meaningful headway into resolving the right to repair issue, the best way to enact instant, sweeping fixes to the system would be through legislation passed by the federal government. While many states are considering bills on an individual basis, change is coming too slowly to offer meaningful relief to farmworkers on a short-term basis.
Just last month, legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives to both increase access to third party repairs and change copyright law to avoid legal issues for consumer repairs. While these bills are likely far away from becoming reality, they represent perhaps the best chance farmers have in receiving the change necessary for agricultural workers to retain more control over the products they own.
3 comments:
This is an interesting piece on a topic I was unfamiliar with, thank you for sharing Taylor! I wonder if coalition building between John Deere tracker owners and John Deere’s union that went on a strike that garnered substantial press coverage in the fall of 2021 is possible? Perhaps the unions can leverage their power to withdraw their labor in order to pressure Deere to ease their exercising IP rights and farmers can leverage their status as tractor consumers to pressure Deere to pay higher wages?
Reading your post, I honestly feel so vindicated thinking back on all of the many hours I spent trying, and usually failing, to fix John Deere tractors and brush hogs for my dad and grandfather. When you are using farm equipment every day, and especially when I am using it, it breaks down. While I guess I should not be surprised that a corporation would deliberately obstruct users’ ability to fix their product, it is wild to me that the “right to repair” is up for debate. The ability to repair that farm equipment is essential to maintaining operations and livelihoods; to limit this right deliberately and without genuine justification is wrong. Thank you for writing on this topic and for identifying current legislative efforts that might dictate future “right to repair” policy.
This is such an interesting topic! I have never thought about the reason why I could never fix things, only the sentiment that large purchases (farm equipment, refrigerators, etc.) don't last as long as they used to. The monopoly on repairs that John Deere has created seems to limit the farmers' ability to make necessary repairs in a cost-effective and timely matter, and also perpetuates a culture of disposability and planned obsolescence. However, I can't help but think about the employment that is created in these smaller towns by needing repairmen. Back home, we put a lot of car mechanics out of business by fixing a lot of things ourselves (oil changes, tire rotations, air filters). We found this to be a problem when we came across something we needed a mechanic to fix. I fear that both the lack of jobs for mechanics and then the lack of mechanics to fix something more extreme may be problematic. However, I definitely don't think that general repairs should be something that needs to be outsourced.
It gives me hope that this issue has bi-partisan support, especially as it means that it's seen as a problem in other sectors as well. I don't have much faith in John Deere's intentions regarding the Memorandum, but hopefully, legislators can pass right-to-repair legislation. It's a repeated topic on this blog that farmers are important to America as a whole, so hopefully we can help them. Even if it's just their egos in being able to fix their equipment themselves as Rooney mentioned.
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