Senate introduces bill to allow farmers to fix their own equipment

I recently left a major part supplier for a good portion of the heavy equipment industry and Deere was one of our biggest customers. They were truly despicable to work with.

On every bid we sent them the #1 requirement was Proprietary Fit. There had to be some sort of IP lockout (always disguised as a valuable design feature, but it never was) to prevent end users from procuring replacement parts anywhere else. In many cases it even made the parts significantly worse, as useless bumps or ridges were added to the industry standard to make them physically incompatible.

The old model was we build a part for $8 and sell it to the end user for $10. Under Deere's new model, we build the part for $8, sell it exclusively to Deere for $11, and they sell it to customer for $16.

My former employer was very complicit in this behavior, but Deere was by far the most aggressive about and a big enough player to squeeze all their suppliers.

Edit: They pay all kinds of lip service to how this is better for the customer ("reliable supply chain", "Deere-guaranteed quality", etc) but that's only in their public PR. Behind the scenes it is 100% about securing a long term revenue source - customers pay out the ass for a piece of equipment, then have to keep coming back to Deere for 50 years for replacement parts.

I wish these things were re-worded the other way. It's a sad state of affairs that a law has to be encoded to grant the people permission to do something that should be the default state. Right to repair is about targeting the manufacturers and preventing them from making it impossible to do so.

Farmers can fix most things on their farm. This is true for machines, fences, structures, animals, etc. Their ingenuity and hard work is how they survive. The ability to take advantage of weather windows as well as harvest and sow at the appropriate times allows them to maximize their output.

Being required to wait around burning days waiting on some specialized technician who can charge exorbitant fees does not work.

Give farmers access to the appropriate parts and resources and they will make their machines function and operate.

This is fantastic news but I'm hesitant to get excited about it yet. If it gets out of committee then it's a reason to celebrate. A bill "for the farmers" is an essential first step getting Right To Repair legislation; if this were to become law then getting similar measures passed for cars and eventually computers, phones, game consoles, and any/all personal electronics becomes easier. I'm looking forward to Louis Rossmann's comments on this!

Here is how things work in the US. Sarcastic tone in my reply…

Round one: this is great

Hardware equipment for farmers (funded by John Deere and Caterpillar) lobbyists hard at work.

Round two: here is a water down version

Lobbyists “discover” that there is a risk of sudden death if a farmer accidentally connects two very potential wires… Lobbyists "do more highly paid” work with unions, OSHA, worker’s compensation insurance companies.

Round three: warranty denied, worker’s compensation denied if worker (the word farmer has been deleted) fix anything that presents a risk of electrocution, or could physically harm the worker or co-workers

Hardware??? Apple & Co. lobbyists jump into the action

Bill is killed. Not enough support at the Senate. The people have spoken.

I really wish this was more broad than just farmers. Everyone who owns equipment should have the ability to at least try to repair it. This quote doesn't strike me as very encouraging:

> Tester said: “I think when you get into other areas like cellphones and TVs and all that kind of stuff, it brings in all sorts of other issues that I am personally not as familiar with as agriculture. That’s not to say that those other issues aren’t really, really important. What it is to say is that I know this issue reasonably well, and I thought this is an issue that we need to deal with, and the sooner the better.”

Of course you don't understand all possible economic sectors and the issues they face. You're a Senator. You can't be expected to have personal expertise on everything. But it's your job to represent everybody anyway, not just the people working in whatever sector you used to work in before you became a Senator. This is why you have a staff. If you don't understand broader technology, hire people who do.

This is a good start, but I wish things like this weren't always so tied to special interests. "Think of the farmers" is even more powerful than "think of the children"; no politician wants to appear to be anti-farmer. But there's no reason we should be carving out a right-to-repair rule for farmers while ignoring every other industry. What's so special about farm equipment, beyond the fact that they have powerful lobbies and strong tribal allegiance from politicians?

Something about this really rubs me the wrong way. Our congress doesn't "give" us rights to do anything. This bill will be full of caveats and will probably be drafted with John Deere lobbyist in the same room.

Court challenges are much more effective at re-establishing individual rights. They're more applicable and usually more broad, especially if you can get a SCOTUS ruling. This law will likely delay a favorable court ruling.

Honestly, Deere has been coasting on their reputation for 5 or so years. In another 5 years, I feel much of the brand loyalty will be gone if they continue this BS.

A key factor here is if Deere and others can at least know if folks are doing work themselves and then be allowed to deny warranty coverage. If so, fair trade.

Could this be solved through antitrust? Is there really no feasible alternative to John Deere for farm equipment? Break 'em up and get some competition in there.

I'm worried that if we don't let the free market handle this, the government is going to make it worse. Someone should steal deere customers on merit, and deere should have the right to ruin their brand equity with stupid predatory marketing and service restrictions. If you don't like it, spend your money with another vendor.

I read the title and I can just see how lobbyists affiliated with John Deere bribe GOP senators, Joe-Joe-Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema so that they kill the bill with the filibuster.

Right to repair should be for everyone or no one. Idiots buying 6 figure pieces of kit for industrial applications without reading their contracts are pretty low on the list of those deserving rescue imho.

can't wait for Louis to rant about this