By Kevin O’Reilly
Believe it or not, biomeds share a common cause with farmers. Both serve critical roles in keeping our country running. Both have to think on their feet and act quickly when trouble strikes. And, when it comes to my work and the subject of this column, both are key advocates in the push for right to repair.
Right to repair is an issue that ranges from ventilators to vacuums, from CT scans to combine harvesters. In this broad campaign, my other priority is to push for farmers’ freedom to fix their own tractors.
I’m proud to say that we reached a major milestone in the agricultural right to repair campaign – along with the farmers and other repair advocates I work with, we were able to build enough pressure to force John Deere to act.
The American Farm Bureau Federation and Deere signed an agricultural Right to Repair agreement in January. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) comes after years of campaigning from PIRG, farmers and other repair advocates.
The MOU states that Deere will provide farmers and – at the request of a farmer– independent mechanics, with “Tools, Specialty Tools, Software and Documentation,” that the company provides to its dealers.
There are some major caveats and questions that remain here. A corporate “vow” lacks the enforcement of regulation. Ag equipment manufacturers have fallen short on previous commitments. And there is a chance that the language of the MOU contains large enough loopholes that farmers won’t have complete repair independence from Deere and its dealers.
For all those reasons, we’re still pushing legislation to make sure that farmers using all brands of equipment can fix 100% of the problems with their tractors.
Nonetheless, we were able to force a titan of agricultural industry, one that has been a vocal opponent to right to repair reforms, to acknowledge that repair restrictions are a problem that needs solving.
What can the medical right to repair movement learn from our farmer friends’ success?
By nailing the technical facts, organizing frustrated farmers, and making our case again and again, we’ve been able to achieve a bigger outcome: winning over public opinion.
If we’re going to take on the biggest corporate opponents in the medical device field – and win – we’re going to need to do the same.
Nailing The Technical Facts
In essentially every state where there has been an agricultural right to repair bill, there has been a manufacturer or dealer rep there to testify that there is no problem that needs to be solved. For a long time, they pointed to a 2018 agreement to provide certain (but not comprehensive) diagnostic tools as the panacea to all farmers’ fixing woes.
By working with farmers and partners from our coalition, I was able to write a report outlining how modern farm equipment is engineered to restrict independent repair and how the industry promise was going to come up short. By working with reporters at VICE who had long been on the right to repair beat, we were able to expose how manufacturers had failed to meet their already-lacking commitment. We have the receipts to show the truth of the matter, which I have no doubt had a role in the MOU addressing issues unsolved by the 2018 agreement.
Organizing Frustrated Farmers
You can have all the facts and figures you want – if you don’t have compelling stories to demonstrate the impact of the problem, I can all but guarantee you will not run a successful campaign. Not only are stories key to making the emotional argument, but farmers are the ones who actually feel the impact of the problem. Their voices need to be elevated above all others.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with courageous folks including Jared Wilson, Walter Schweitzer and Scott Potmesil, whose stories have been critical to our ability to show the ridiculous and real consequences that repair restrictions cause. Our campaign goes nowhere without these and hundreds of other farmers who are brave enough to stand up and speak out.
Making Our Case Here, There and Everywhere
Our coalition has pushed for tractor right to repair in more than a dozen states, in Congress, with the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. We’ve used those efforts, our research and farmer stories to make our argument in the media.
This is not to say that you need to fight on every possible front. A well-formulated strategy is key to any successful campaign. But we have been tireless in our search for opportunities to push forward – whether through potential paths to victory or ways to get our message out to more people.
Winning The People
Powerful interests can outlobby and outspend you, but there’s no sum of money that can defeat strong public opinion. People of all political stripes overwhelmingly support agricultural right to repair, though many did not know about it. Through our work, we were able to identify the folks that agree with us to join our cause and help convince decision makers – as well as those undecided on the issue – to do the right thing.
If we’re going to win on medical right to repair, we’re going to need to win the people. Can you help us nail the technical facts, such as what repair restrictions cost our health care system? Do you have a compelling story to share? Do you want to organize an effort to convince your lawmakers to support the effort?
Join our list (tinyurl.com/5n8ybhfw) and drop me a note. Let’s get to work.
