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To the Editor:

Some activists are pushing for the Pennsylvania legislature to put in place a โ€œright to repairโ€ law, claiming it would make it easier for people to get their smart phones and electronic devices fixed. But whatโ€™s not mentioned is that this kind of law would harm our stateโ€™s multi-billion-dollar farming industry by inserting big government where it doesnโ€™t belong.

This kind of far-reaching โ€œright to repairโ€ legislation would risk the safety, durability and environmental sustainability of farm equipment. Itโ€™s also unnecessary, given that the only repairs that equipment owners canโ€™t do themselves are related to government emissions and safety standards. In other words, tractor and combine owners have the same repair rights as truck and car owners.

Efforts to pass โ€œright to repairโ€ bills are being led by groups whose main goal is to gain access to proprietary information and if they succeed, it will be at the expense of our stateโ€™s tens of thousands of farms. This policy would undermine the significant investment โ€“ hundreds of thousands of dollars on average โ€“ in equipment and machinery by opening the door to illegal modifications and tampering. This ultimately will negatively impact trade-in value and expose farmers to shortened equipment life.

People want to fix their own equipment, which I couldnโ€™t agree with more. But broad, far-reaching legislation that will negatively hurt a critical industry in our state and more importantly wonโ€™t solve any problem is not the right kind of action for our state legislature to take.

Sincerely,

Mike Firestine
Womelsdorf, PA

Mike Firestine is a farmer and a banker at Fulton Bank. He is a member of the Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Farm-City Committee.

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