Page 23 2025 Logan County Spring Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2025 For example, if a farmer’s John Deere tractor were to break down, they may try to fix it themselves before resorting to paying a professional to fix the issue. If the issue goes deeper than a simple replacement, the farmer may need to diagnose the issue and cannot do so on a John Deere tractor without the ADVISOR tool. If this is the case, the farmer would have to take their tractor into a John Deere dealer. The issue of farmers having the right to repair their own equipment has been an ongoing one. There is a movement called “Right to Repair” that has been fighting for farmer’s rights to repair their own equipment. “Right to Repair” has been the primary idea behind the MOU that John Deere signed with the AFBF, but also the MOUs that other large name farm equipment retailers have also signed. It is also the primary idea behind this most recent lawsuit against John Deere. In a statement given by Chair Lina M. Khan of the FTC regarding this lawsuit, “the Commission has made it a priority to protect Americans’ right to repair their products and to ensure that independent mechanics are not being unlawfully shut out from the market.” Khan goes on to argue that, as technology becomes more advanced, farmers are going to need access to more advanced tools to diagnose and fix their own equipment. “This work,” Khan writes, “will be especially important as continued technological advances…will create new areas where repair restrictions inflate costs, create frustration, and harm competition.” Those in favor of getting farmers access to the John Deere ADVISOR tool want to make sure that farmers have ways to fix their own farm equipment even as farm equipment becomes more advanced. It should be noted that, of the five members of the FTC that voted on filing this lawsuit, two voted against it. One of these Commissioners, Andrew N. Ferguson, made a dissenting statement on the lawsuit, joined by the other Commissioner, Melissa Holyoak. Ferguson calls this lawsuit politically motivated, stating it is a “Democratic majority’s decision.” In addition, Ferguson argues that the solutions that are being worked on now have not yet come to fruition, and getting into another legal battle will not provide a real solution faster. Additionally, he states that the market is very complex, and that this lawsuit is not one that addresses that fact. The website Successful Farming published an article in 2020 that provides some additional support to Furguson’s argument. According to Jessica Wesson, the author of this article, “the idea that farmers cannot fix their equipment Continued --
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