How are they still in business? Every single farmer, bar none, has to know about their business practices

Wendover Productions has a decent video on John Deere’s market dominance. tl;dw It’s by cutthroat capitalism of course.

John Deere has bought out all their competitors and continues to do so. Every single breakthrough in farming equipment technology in the last decade is owned by John Deere. As a farmer, you either choose to sign a one-sided contract with John Deere or you use outdated inefficient equipment that John Deere hasn’t purchased the patent rights to. Or, of course, you sell your farm all together. Large corporate farms don’t care much about the John Deere contract since they have the power to negotiate a better deal. A lot of small farmers have been making the choice to sell out.

Soon, all farming will be done by one megacorp, buying their seed from Monsanto, using John Deere equipment, and cashing in a ridiculously fat subsidy cheque from the government.