Rural Backlash
Rural Americans are different than those from the big coastal cities. Tractor Supply Company just discovered that. Tractor Supply is a Tennessee-based retailer known for selling animal feed, farm tools, workwear, and even live chicks and ducks. It is one of the last companies in the nation that you would expect to go woke, but it did. On October 20, 2021, CEO Hal Lawton wrote an Op-Ed in The Tennessean newspaper titled, “Why businesses should follow Tractor Supply’s push for diversity, inclusion, and climate change prevention.” Lawton led Tractor Supply with the philosophy that Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was a necessary good and that climate change was an existential threat.
The Tractor Supply Store in Chehalis, Washington State
Tractor Supply Company has over 2,200 stores primarily in rural areas. One is near my home and I have shopped there many times. That is until I began to hear what they were doing with their money. The Epoch Times reports that, under Lawton’s leadership the company gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to DEI-related causes. He set carbon emission goals for the company and sponsored festivals promoting the gay and transgender communities and submitted donation data to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Tractor Supply is free to use its money as it chooses. I’m free to spend my money as I choose. I took my business to the other farm supply store in the area.
Last year, beverage maker Anheuser-Busch suffered a significant sales drop when their Bud Light brand featured advertisements with the image of transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney on the cans. Sales plummeted and remain below previous levels. Target also suffered a sales drop after featuring a Pride Month collection in its stores.
Robby Starbuck exposes Tractor Supply Company
On June 6th of this year activist Robby Starbuck, also from Tennessee, wrote that it was, “time to expose Tractor Supply,” which he said was one of conservatives’ most beloved brands but was at odds with their values. With nearly half a million followers on his X-feed Starbuck can spread a message quickly. Starbuck pointed to the “DEI hiring practices, in-office Pride Month decorations, climate change activism and “funding sex changes.”
Almost immediately, I heard that Tractor Supply had changed course. The Associated Press (AP) reported that the retailer would “‘stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities’ such as Pride festivals or voting campaigns — and no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign.” In addition, the company, “would be eliminating all of its diversity, equity and inclusion roles while retiring current DEI goals.”
The woke agenda of DEI policies, social justice, 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? Tell me about your experience in the comment section below.
