Commentary: Right to Repair Connects to Farmers’ ‘Spirit of Self-Sufficiency’
Guy Mills Jr. grows corn, soybean and alfalfa on his 3,810-acre farm in Ansley, Neb. It has been his custom to fix his own equipment when it broke, but Mills’ equipment has become so technologically complex that he needs outside help when it breaks down. It costs him time and money, both of which are in short supply.
Mills and his fellow farmers say that part of the problem is that equipment manufacturers like Deere make it difficult for consumers and independent repair shops to get the tools needed to fix today’s high-tech equipment, which runs on copyright-protected software. Instead, they often need company-approved technicians.
In response, Mills and other farmers nationwide have pursued right-to-repair legislation, which would require equipment manufacturers to offer the diagnostic tools, manuals and other supplies that farmers need to fix their own machines.
Right-to-repair bills have been introduced in at least 12 states. They have drawn Republican support in places such as ag-intensive Nebraska and Democratic, pro-consumer New Jersey. In every case, the bills have encountered an unexpected foe: Apple.
The iPhone maker has been lobbying against the bills, arguing that they could result in subpar repair work or make consumers vulnerable to hackers.
Advocates for right to repair say that Apple wants to maintain control of its share of the approximately $4 billion smartphone-fixing business.
“The more that they can completely own the repair experience, the more of a profit opportunity there is,” says Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, an online repair-manual repository.
The battle has produced some unlikely bedfellows. Farmers like Mills who want to repair their own heavy equipment are banding together with techies like Wiens, who believes consumers should be able to fix their own phones and computers.
“There’s a cultural perception that you can’t fix things anymore, but I’m not sure that’s true,” says Wiens, whose website had 94 million visitors last year searching for DIY repair guides.
The battle is about more than malfunctioning tractors or cracked iPhone screens. It’s about a spirit of self-sufficiency that’s baked into the DNA of blue collar America. Mills says he takes pride in farmers’ image as can-do fixers who can keep their own machinery humming.
Advocates for right-to-repair say there’s a psychologically important benefit to tinkering with the things we buy.
“There’s this pervasive sense that we’re ruled by these inscrutable forces that are hard to bring within view," says Matthew Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work. “Being able to be the master of your own stuff, to open it up and take a look and take care of it, answers to a very basic human need.”
Source: Time