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.
I’ll never buy a John Deere. Fuck em. I’ll buy Kubota or New Holland as my dad did before I ever give them a dime.
I inherited a Kubota from the early '90s and she’s still chugging along.
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.
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.
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.
No right to repair their PR decisions.
Back tracking on DEI initiatives seemed to work out well for Tractor Supply Co. Let’s see how it works out for actual tractors.
Bullied for supporting people’s beliefs.
Already fucked up with the right to repair bullshit
Shit goes down when there’s solar flares
Smells like rotting meat if you ask me
“nothing runs like a deere”
running like a little pussy-ass biiiiiiiiiiitch~
I’m a lot more surprised they had any of these programs in the first place.
It’s good for their stock. That’s why. It’s part of their esg score. Nothing like virtue signaling.
They’re also about to make massive layoffs (many employees report not knowing whether they’re on the list for next Wednesday (IIRC)), so they apparently aren’t doing well as a going concern. I don’t know whether there’s any connection beyond close timing.
No, they’re actually doing very well:
https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/de/financials
Net income and operating income is 3x it was 5 years ago. This DEI issue is unfortunate, but don’t lie about the company.
What’s being profitable have to do with mass firings? It’s like you’ve been asleep for forty years.
They are doing fine. They are moving the jobs to Mexico. That’s what nafta allows them to do. Biden should declare it a national security issue and tell them they can’t do it.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas …
Yeah, because those are illegal.
… and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.”
@Nougat@fedia.io thinks that never using pronouns to refer to other people (or in reference to @Nougat@fedia.io’s self) in any context is silly.
