This is a speech I gave at 4H District 1 Public Speaking competition. I got first place. This was not designed to be an article, and more so a speech given on a podium.

Imagine swapping the components in your phone, laptop, or other device that you use everyday. Nowadays you have to really research into what specific part you need, what specific model your product is, look up videos on how to swap it, buy a specific screwdriver because instead of using Phillips head they use tri-wing or blah blah blah. The point is, easily interchangeable components in most consumer goods, are now a thing of the past.

It’s true interchangeable components can’t be every component or we wouldn’t have innovation. If every part of a car was the same, or every chip in a phone was the same, we would have no competition.

But as consumers, we need to define a fine line between innovation and anti-competitive practices. Those sound very different, but in today’s modern society, that is the definition we need to make to stop monopolies. And that’s where Right to Repair comes in.

Right to Repair is a, until recently, underground movement that has taken off not too long ago. It’s the fight to legally grant consumers access to documents and software that allow us to repair our devices. Most companies do not like Right to Repair. Lets take Apple as an example. Apple is now pretty Right to Repair friendly compared to itself just a few years ago, but we’re not completely there.

Apple used to block repair shops from buying components necessary to repair devices. Apple would tell factories, “Hey, only sell these chips to us.” And so most chips used in independent repair shops were either bootlegged or sneaked off of factory lines. If you have a Apple device that has a replaced component, chances are its not an actual Apple component.

But our saving grace in this nightmare is the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act. This act says that if you have an active warranty, on any you can get a part. But, the problem with this act is that companies have found ways to bypass it.

This is where John Deere comes in. John Deere makes wonderful products, they truly are nice. The problem with John Deere tractors is the repairabillity. You sure can get a John Deere part, you legally can. Period. But, they aren’t obligated to tell you how to get past their software locks, nor how to actually fix it. All they have to do is give you the part.

John Deere has made a monopoly over repair of their devices, simply due to their software locks. The only way to fix your broken tractor is call a franchised John Deere retailer, usually only one retailer is in a region, creating a sub-monopoly over farmers in the region, wait hours for them to come to you, and finally fix your tractor. For a fee, of course.

John Deere is tanking profits in farmers because, as many of you know, farming is a time sensitive job. Many things in farming are time sensitive, such as planting, or harvest. Having to wait 3 hours for a repair crew to show up does not help. Not being able to plant or harvest at the right time lowers the value of farmers crops.

I’ve experienced this personally. I help my dad on the farm, and a year ago I was plowing a field. When all of a sudden, the tractor slowed down, creeped slowly, then died. I tried starting it again, no luck. I call my dad, who calls a repair crew. And then I wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. 2 and ½ hours for a man in a truck to drive 15 miles. The man gets here says the usual “How are you”, “Oh I’m fine”, blah blah blah. To be fair, he was a nice guy. He repairs the tractor for about 30 minutes, and then programs it for an hour and a half. I left with my dad because it was taking too long to program it. This didn’t make sense to me. At my computer at home and my 3D printer, you can just drop in a new part, screw it in, have that puppy up and going. If the part is connected to the Engine Management System, it should already have the firmware on there, right? It’s at this point when I realize that John Deere intentionally makes these software locks hard to break into or even understand so that they can control repair.

Some people think that the software locks are a part of “innovation” and its necessary for companies to stay afloat in the modern market. That is straight up false. Other companies have completely removed software and hardware locks on their devices, and are thriving. Framework Laptops, a company dedicated to creating laptops that don’t have software and hardware locks is thriving. They support independent repair. You can buy parts from Framework, at a fair price. There are spare screws inside the laptop, for if you lose one. I wrote this speech on a Framework laptop, and from personal experience, it genuinely a nice laptop. Framework proves that companies absolutely can create repairable devices, and still prosper. But the reality we live in is big corporations, like John Deere, trying to squeeze consumers for every penny.

John Deere is stopping independent repair shops, limiting farmers from repairing the products they own, creating monopolies over a region and sometimes the products don’t even work. Back in the early 1900’s when John Deere was initially making tractors, they became popular because of their reliability. If something broke back then, most farmers could fix it in a hour or two, then hop back on for the day. But now driving to a John Deere Retailer a couple hours away is a weekly occurrence for some farmers. Me and my family have to.

John Deere, as a business, actively takes part in anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices. We as consumers cannot allow this. While Congress has been pretty divided for most of recent history, the majority of Congress is against these practices, heck they already introduced a bill helping with right to repair.

We consumers have to take action. The farmers here, know they cant just boycott John Deereand not use their products, they rely on them for a living. Heres what we can do.

Write to your local senator and representative about passing the S.3549 - AgriculturalRight to Repair Act. Write about how it affects you, and if doesn’t, I guarantee it affectssomeone you know or someone you love. It affects me and my family.

We as consumers can no longer stand or take this, and we have to do something.

Thank you.