Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash.
In a statement posted Tuesday to social media platform X, John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance” the diversity of the company, without providing further details.
The move from the company known on Wall Street as Deere & Co. arrives just weeks after rural retailer Tractor Supply ended an array of its corporate diversity and climate efforts. Both announcements came after backlash piled up online from conservative activists opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, sponsorship of LGBTQ+ Pride events and climate advocacy.
lol, this is base obeisance in hopes that their target demographic will forget how hard and long they fought to keep their tractors illegal to repair outside authorized dealers.
Sad thing is, it’ll probably work.
Oh no this is so they become the official American Tractor corporation and can get preferential treatment from the Trump administration. Political analysts who advise businesses are telling them to hedge heavily for Trump. If he loses then so what? The Democrats don’t punish companies for stuff like this. If he wins, you have an inside track.
I could believe an argument from JD such as “we’ll spend more time working on our product rather than diversity awareness events”… if they weren’t spending all their time counting money they earned from leaving farmers high and dry when their shit breaks down.