Major AG Associations Support Right to Repair

Your Group Not on this List??  Just get in touch -- info@repair.org

American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union and the National Corn Growers are all in support of Right to Repair. The teamed with us in front of the US Copyright Office to get specific exemptions to repair all “Land Based Motor Vehicles” including the right to hire those they trust to help. For the full USCO Ruling see Section 5 of this larger document.

Right to Repair for Agriculture was adopted as a party plank for the DNC in the 2020 election. Since the election, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported on the lack of evidence provided by manufacturers in support of their repair monopolies. The Biden Administration put Right to Repair in their Executive Order in June, and reiterated their support for Right to Repair again in January of 2022.

Individuals are Powerful - Use your voice

Even if you are a member of a crop or farm association, your personal voice is important. We make grass-roots contacts free and easy.  Just go to our How To Help page and find your state.  Tell your repair story -- your legislator is going to read it.  

Opposition positions

John Deere has sent letters of opposition (Example Here) to legislators with every bill filed.  They all say the same thing -- that allowing anyone other than the Deere Dealership to repair their equipment will result in: 

  • the unsafe operation of its products

  • disruption of machine capabilities and performance

  • illegal changes to emissions controls

  • voiding of warranties

  • lack of transparency to changes on resale, and

  • a less-than-optimal customer experience

However, all of these risks flow to the buyer at point of purchase. Literally, its none of Deere’s business to protect you from yourself regardless of whom you trust to repair your property

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) in coordination with the Equipment Dealers Association (EDA) have come forward with a Right to Repair policy that was announced to take effect starting January 1, 2021. Nothing happened. Terms of the plan still fail to deliver true rights of owners to control their property. Recent press has proclaimed that farmers will have 95% control. That’s not Right to Repair.

Copyright Reform - Powerful Exemptions for Repair

Every three years, the US Copyright Office is required to consider and rule on requests for exemptions to Section 1201 - the section which allows for digital locks. Our teams, including the EFF and the USC Gould School of Law have argued successfully for exemptions that now grant owners of all “land-based motor vehicles” not only the right to repair their equipment but the right to hire help breaking digital locks for purposes of repair assistance.  Farmers can legally fix their stuff, but AEM and EDA members have simply revised their End User License Agreements (“EULA”) to block these important legal rights.

 

tractor.jpg

Farmers should be able to REpair Their Equipment

Photos courtesy Stawarz

Photos courtesy Stawarz

The National Grange agrees: “On behalf of over 200,000 members of the National Grange, we fully support the Right to Repair Act because we believe in an owner’s right to maintain, service, repair and rebuild their vehicle or farming equipment on their own accord or by the repair shop of their choice. Our members, most of them located in rural areas, value their ability and freedom to fix and repair their own vehicles, tractors and other farm equipment. Should they seek assistance elsewhere, local repair shops should have access to all necessary computer codes and service information in order to properly and efficiently make repairs. 

“In addition, we believe that in the absence of the Right to Repair Act, many individuals, both rural and urban, would likely put off important vehicle repairs and maintenance, jeopardizing their safety and the safety of others on the road. It is also important to note that our members often farm and ranch in remote locations where repair shops are just not available. Days waiting on parts from dealers can mean missing crop target pricing, costing our members in agriculture a great deal of revenue.”

Farmers are Fighting Back

More and more, farmers are turning to the internet to learn how to repair their complex equipment. They are turning to websites like iFixit to share techniques for maintaining equipment.

But it's not enough.

We're fighting for farmers. They deserve to be able to repair their equipment quickly—and on their own terms. We are working to pass Fair Repair legislation at the state level that would put farmers back in control of the repair of their own equipment. And we've successfully petitioned the Copyright Office to carve out protection for modifications and repairs made to the software in tractors. We will continue to fight for the rights of farmers to repair what they own.

We need to require manufacturers make equipment field-serviceable.

“Repair of high tech agriculture has the same challenges and needs of repair of on-road vehicles such as tractors. We have the added challenges of keeping sensors, drones, networks, controls and equipment that is much more like that in a data center than a barn all up and running. The Repair Association is bringing repair of all things digital together in a way that will benefit everyone engaged in high-tech agriculture. “
— Kenny Roelofsen, political liaison at Abilene Machine