1. Farmers often buy their seeds from seed companies. Sometimes the seeds are defective (they carry disease, they include weeds, they are an inferior variety, and so on) and the net result is a disappointingly small crop. The farmer's loss would be disproportionate to the price of seeds, since if the seeds are bad his expenses on other inputs (labor, land, irrigation, and so forth) are all for nought. Seed companies usually include limitations on liability in their contracts (or on their packages and in their catalogues). Typically, liability is limited to the purchase price of the seeds.

Such disclaimers do not fare well in the courts. Some courts have found the disclaimers unconscionable for a variety of reasons: (a) all the competitors' using a similar clause, (b) the farmers have relatively little bargaining power, (c) farmers are uncounseled laymen, (d) the fact that the defect is usually within the control of the seed company, which is in a better position to prevent the defect, and (e) the fact that the farmer could lose his entire livelihood while the seed company would lose only a relatively few dollars. (See, for example, Martin v. Joseph Harris Co., Inc.)