American Family Farmer

GAY GORDON-BYREN is Executive Director of The Repair Association at repair.org. She was born into a computer geek household and grew up around computer parts and designs. She wanted nothing to do with computers as a kid, but wanted to be a figure skater like Peggy Fleming or an opera singer, but didn’t have the right stuff.REPAIR.ORG believes that every time a farm equipment manufacturer inserts a computerized part into their product – they seem to take that as an opportunity to monopolize repair. Its wrong on every level – so it must be stopped. Farmers do own their equipment but they often give up those rights with a hidden agreement that states otherwise. MODERN FARM EQUIPMENT is very much like computer mainframes were in the 1970s.  When they break – it’s a very big deal.  There is little or no tolerance for downtime. They are expensive, bulky, and have to be repaired in the field. It’s as impossible to fix a modern tractor as it is a computer without the tools, parts, schematics, diagnostics and firmware