Right-To-Repair Advocates Question John Deere's New Promises

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Early this week, tractor maker John Deere said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural trade group, promising to make it easier for farmers to access tools and software needed to repair their own equipment. The deal looked like a concession from the agricultural equipment maker, a major target of the right-to-repair movement, which campaigns for better access to documents and tools needed for people to repair their own gear. But right-to-repair advocates say that despite some good points, the agreement changes little, and farmers still face unfair barriers to maintaining equipment they own.

Kevin O'Reilly, a director of the right-to-repair campaign run by the US Public Interest Research Group, a grassroots lobbying organization, says the timing of Deere's deal suggests the company may be trying to quash recent interest in right-to-repair laws from state legislators. In the past two years, corn belt states including Nebraska and Missouri, and also Montana, have considered giving farmers a legal right to tools needed to repair their own equipment. But no laws have been passed. "The timing of this new agreement is no accident," O'Reilly says. "This could be part of an effort to take the wind out of the sails of right-to-repair legislation." Indeed, one section of the memorandum takes direct aim at proposals to enshrine the right to repair into law. It states that the American Farm Bureau Foundation "agrees to encourage state Farm Bureau organizations to recognize the commitments made in this MOU and refrain from introducing, promoting, or supporting federal or state Right to Repair legislation that imposes obligations beyond the commitments in this MOU."

Walter Schweitzer, a Montana-based cattle farmer and right-to-repair advocate, calls the new agreement "a Groundhog Day sort of thing" -- a repeat of something he has seen before. The memorandum is similar to one signed in 2018 by the California Farm Bureau, the state's largest organization for farmers' interests, and the Equipment Dealers Association, which represents Deere, he says. But little changed afterward, in his view. [...] The new agreement isn't legally binding. It states that should either party determine that the MOU is no longer viable, all they have to do is provide written notice to the other party of their intent to withdraw. And both US PIRG and Schweitzer note that other influential farmers groups are not party to the agreement, such as the National Farmers Union, where Schweitzer is a board member and runs the Montana chapter. Schweitzer is also concerned by the way the agreement is sprinkled with promises to offer farmers or independent repair shops "fair and reasonable terms" on access to tools or information. "'Fair and reasonable' to a multibillion-dollar company can be a lot different for a farmer who is in debt, trying to make payments on a $200,000 tractor and then has to pay $8,000 to $10,000 to purchase hardware for repairs," he says.

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