In Rural America, Right-to-Repair Laws Are the Leading Edge of a Pushback Against Growing Corporate power
- Author: Leland Glenna, The Conversation
- Full Title: In Rural America, Right-to-Repair Laws Are the Leading Edge of a Pushback Against Growing Corporate power
- Category: articles
- URL: https://modernfarmer.com/2023/02/in-rural-america-right-to-repair-laws-are-the-leading-edge-of-a-pushback-against-growing-corporate-power/
Highlights
- A new memorandum of understanding between the country’s largest farm equipment maker, John Deere Corp., and the American Farm Bureau Federation is now raising hopes that U.S. farmers will finally regain the right to repair more of their own equipment (View Highlight)
- Under the agreement, John Deere promises to give farmers and independent repair shops access to manuals, diagnostics and parts. But there’s a catch – the agreement isn’t legally binding, and, as part of the deal, the influential Farm Bureau promised not to support any federal or state right-to-repair legislation. (View Highlight)
- Market power often translates into political power, which means that those large companies can influence regulatory oversight, legal decisions, and legislation that furthers their economic interests – including securing more expansive and stricter intellectual property policies. (View Highlight)
- At its most basic level, right-to-repair legislation seeks to protect the end users of a product from anti-competitive activities by large companies. New York passed the first broad right-to-repair law, in 2022, and nearly two dozen states have active legislation – about half of them targeting farm equipment. (View Highlight)