GREAT FALLS — When equipment breaks down during planting or harvest, every hour matters.
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For organic farmer and Montana Farmers Union board member John Wicks, that is just one example of a bigger challenge facing Montana producers: fewer choices.
“It’s really just about choice,” said Wicks. “Competition is healthy for the economy, and it’s healthy for the producers to put those choices in their hands.”
He explained consolidation across agriculture has left farmers and ranchers with fewer places to buy equipment and inputs, fewer markets to sell their crops and fewer options when something goes wrong.
“There’s not a lot of options to sell their crops. There’s not a lot of options where they buy their inputs and their machinery,” he said. “Over the last few decades, we’ve seen those choices shrink a lot due to consolidation in agriculture.”
Those concerns are at the center of the Federal Trade Commission’s work. During an interview, David Shaw, principal deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said the agency reviews major mergers and investigates conduct that may unfairly limit competition.
“Big isn’t bad, but big behaving badly is bad,” Shaw said.
One recent example is the FTC’s settlement with Deere & Co. The settlement is intended to give farmers and independent repair shops greater access to the tools and software needed to diagnose and repair Deere equipment.
For Wicks, the settlement is a significant step forward after years of advocacy for farmers’ right to repair.
“I think it’s a really big positive step,” Wicks said. “There’s a lot more work to do, but this is a pretty monumental step that gives farmers a lot of hope.”
Shaw added the FTC is also investigating the fertilizer industry. He said a successful outcome could help lower prices for producers.
“The best way for us to understand the market and understand whether we need to investigate it and potentially enforce in it is to hear from participants in that market who are affected by it,” Shaw said.
He encouraged producers to report potentially anticompetitive or unfair conduct through the FTC’s antitrust complaint portal. Shaw said detailed, factual information is more useful than a general concern because it can help the agency determine what is happening and whether further action is warranted.
While Wicks welcomes the Deere settlement, he hopes the conversation about competition does not end there. He said the larger goal is ensuring producers have real choices, whether that means repairing equipment, buying supplies or bringing their products to market.
