Tell the Senate to help our farmers
Broken farm equipment can threaten an entire harvest. That’s bad news for the farmer — and for all the people who rely on their crops for food.
Yet repair restrictions on crucial farm equipment are forcing farmers to take machinery like tractors to a limited number of authorized repair shops, which can take weeks and cost a fortune.
We can't let these restrictions hamstring our country's farmers. Tell your U.S. senators to support the Agriculture Right to Repair Act and help our farmers.
Farming tech used to be as straightforward as a plow to dig and a horse to pull it. Now, in addition to complex machinery, modern farming equipment like tractors run on sophisticated software.
As a result, minor technical issues can impair a piece of equipment’s functioning and throw a wrench into an entire harvest.
When farmers run into problems with their machinery, they often don’t have the tools or software needed to fix them. In fact, nobody has those tools and software — except for manufacturer-authorized dealerships — leaving farmers no choice in who repairs what or how much it will cost.
For farmers, this monopolistic practice means longer waits for more expensive repairs. Between razor-thin margins and an increasingly hot and destructive climate, that’s an inconvenience that few farmers can afford.
Luckily, this problem (unlike modern farm equipment) has an easy fix: Give farmers the right to fair repair.
The prospects for winning the right to fair repair look better now than they have in years — maybe ever.
Recent years have seen a wave of right to repair legislation introduced in more than half the states in the country. And in July 2021, President Biden signed an executive order endorsing the right to fair repair.
And the momentum’s keeping up. Jon Tester, a U.S. senator from Montana, introduced the Agriculture Right to Repair Act — one of our best chances yet to protect farmers from monopolies on repair.
We all rely on our farmers. It’s time we give them the help they deserve — and need.