Deere & Co., the Illinois-based ag equipment giant, announced it was scaling back some diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives after weeks of criticism from a conservative activist and social media backlash.
Deere announced in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it would examine its internal policies and would not participate in any “external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events.”
Deere posted the changes Tuesday afternoon in a post to X:
- No longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades festivals or events.
- Business Resource Groups will solely be focused on professional development, networking, mentoring and supporting talent recruitment efforts.
- Deere plans to audit all company-mandated training materials and policies to “ensure the absence of socially motivated messages while being in compliance with federal, state and local laws.”
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Further, the company said it was “reaffirming within the business that the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.”
Deere employs more than 80,000 people across the globe and said in the post it was committed to serving employees and customers and listening to feedback.
Deere said that in the past year, it had revised corporate guidelines to focus only on sponsorships supporting the business and brand and the nonprofit sponsorships focused on priority areas such as hunger, economic development, poverty alleviation, STEM, agriculture education initiatives and support for service members and veterans.
“We fundamentally believe that a diverse workforce enables us to best meet our customers’ needs, and because of that we will continue to track and advance the diversity of our organization,” the statement read.
Deere spokespeople did not respond to a request Wednesday for further explanation or comment.
The statement comes after weeks of social media pressure, led by right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck.
Starbuck is a filmmaker and former Tennessee congressional candidate. His 2024 documentary “The War On Children” accused LGBTQ+ activists, critical race theory education and social media platforms like TikTok of endangering children.
This month, Starbuck turned his attention to Deere, launching a multi-week campaign criticizing Deere’s sponsorship of Pride Month events and advancement of internal DEI initiatives. Starbuck’s initial nine-minute video about Deere has accumulated more than 5 million views on X. Amid company-wide layoffs, Starbuck implied Deere had focused too much on diversity, equity and inclusion.
As part of his push, Starbuck shared names and positions of various Deere employees who worked in Deere’s Human Resources department or posted positive social media posts about the company’s DEI policies.
In June, Starbuck went on a similar crusade against another farm equipment supplier, Tractor Supply. After weeks of pressure, Tractor Supply announced it would walk back its relationship with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, eliminate all DEI-related roles at the company and withdraw its carbon emission goals.
After Deere’s statement this week, Starbuck was not satisfied.
“Deere needs to go full Tractor Supply if they want the forgiveness of customers,” Starbuck wrote in a post on Wednesday.
