Deere Backlash
Founded in 1837, John Deere is the world's largest farm equipment manufacturer with revenue of over $61 billion. The company manufactures tractors, combines, backhoes, excavators, seed drills, and more and sells them on every continent. Simply put, John Deere makes and sells the equipment that farmers and other working men need. Earlier this month I reported on how Tractor Supply Company had retreated from Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), LGBTQ events, and climate change philosophy after a rural customer backlash. Now it has come to light that John Deere has adopted similar progressive policies.
Apparently, it is easy for rural-based companies to forget that most of their customers have callused hands, and wear blue jeans and boots. Most don’t follow the latest trends; they simply get up every morning and work. While I don’t call myself a farmer, I live among many of them. For me farming is more of a hobby. However, when my lawn tractor needed repair work I turned to the nearby John Deere retailer. They did a good job repairing my machine and earned my business for the next decade and more.
I reported on July 5th of this year, how Tennessee political commentator Robby Starbuck exposed the woke practices of Tractor Supply Company. After their turn to a more politically neutral company, Starbuck posted on YouTube and Twitter (‘X’) about the woke policies of John Deere.
Catholic Vote, a Catholic political advocacy group, quoted Starbuck as saying that the company asks employees to list their ‘preferred pronouns’ on all communications, that the company funded a pride event for kids as young as three, and that the company has a 95 out of 100 score from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
Starbuck is quoted in The Tennessee Star as saying the John Deere company allows transgender individuals to use opposite-sex bathrooms. “I’ve had multiple sources, employees at corporate, come to me and say that they’re allowing men to use the same bathroom as women, as long as they say they’re trans, and essentially, if you have any problem with it as a woman at work, it’s framed as discrimination to have an issue with it. This type of thinking permeates so much further than the bathrooms, too.”
Recently, the company brought in Nikole Hannah-Jones from the 1619 Project to speak to corporate employees as part of its DEI initiative. The 1619 Project has been called “junk history,” by mainstream historians and they have called for corrections to the project. Starbuck has termed the project, “explicitly racist and [a] far left propaganda piece, to employees.” According to Starbuck Bill Gates is a leading investor in John Deere. Starbuck describes the company as a “Trojan horse for leftism,” and that the turning point for the Deere Company appears to be the elevation of John May to head the company in 2019. The company has recently laid off hundreds of workers as it shifts production to Mexico.
The woke agenda of DEI policies, LGBTQ events and more is altering the fabric of our society. Has this agenda impacted a company in your community? Has it caused you to change your shopping habits or have you changed jobs? Do you want a politically neutral John Deere Company? Tell me what you think in the comment section below.
