John Deere ends support of 'social or cultural awareness' events, distances from inclusion efforts

abcnews.go.com:

Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, making the agricultural machinery manufacturer one of the latest U.S. companies to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being t...

NEW YORK — 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 on how those metrics would be recorded.

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.

Conservative political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck appeared to lead the criticism of both companies on X.

Starbuck posted that John Deere's announcement marked “another huge win in our war on wokeness,” but said that it still wasn't enough, calling on the company to