The cherished tractor firm John Deere has become the latest target of activists, who say it’s strayed from its conservative base by backing LGBTQ+ events and embracing diversity-hiring targets.
The $61 billion-a-year company has been slammed for sponsoring a Pride event for kids as young as three, and encouraging staff to use ‘preferred pronouns’ as it tries to become more ‘inclusive.’
All the while, critics say, the 185-year-old firm has sacked American workers, with the axing this week of 345 more production employees from its plant at Waterloo, Iowa, as it shifts production to Mexico.
The backlash echoes a similar boycott against Tractor Supply, a retail chain, and last year’s high-profile campaign against Bud Light over a tie-up with a transgender influencer, which cost the beer-maker millions in lost sales.
‘John Deere seems to have forgotten who their customers are,’ says Robby Starbuck, the filmmaker and 2022 Republican House candidate for Tennessee who leads the campaign against the tractor firm.
John Deere, which makes tractors, construction vehicles, mowers, and snowmobiles, is the latest all-American brand to face a conservative backlash
‘Having a farm myself, I’m disgusted that a once great American brand is now taking this turn to seemingly embrace leftist policies that are diametrically opposed to the values of most farmers.’
John Deere, which has 83,000 employees across more than 30 countries and is headquartered in Moline, Illinois, did not answer DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
According to Starbuck, the tractor firm has embraced ‘woke’ policies, which are controversial among many conservatives, even as they are seen as standard across much of corporate America.
Pictured: John Deere CEO John May made $26.7 million in total compensation last year
He highlights the firm’s support for the Little Rainbow Run at the Capital City Pride event last month in Des Moines, Iowa, calling it ‘creepy’ to involve toddlers in an event aimed at ‘celebrating what sex you like.’
He also points to the company’s embrace of new-wave gender ideology, including staff training sessions on the ‘genderbread person,’ which casts aside traditional notions of sex in favor of the gender spectrum.
John Deere’s website encourages staff to ‘use their personal pronouns’ in email signatures and correspondence, saying it is a ‘sign of mutual respect’ for people who do not identify with their biological sex.
It also refers to ‘strengthening the diversity of our workforce’ and the need for ‘inclusiveness so every employee can make the greatest impact as their true self.’
Starbuck says the company, which is known for its leaping deer logo, has embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion policies root and branch, urging employees to tackle ‘white privilege’ among a series of controversial policies.
He noted that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, a left-leaning philanthropist, is one of John Deere’s top investors, and urged the company’s $20-million-a-year CEO John May to come explain how ‘it’s gotten out of control.’
John Deere is under fire for sponsoring a fun run for kids as young as three at the Capital City Pride event last month in Des Moines, Iowa.
The company website makes several references to ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusivity,’ and the use of preferred pronouns
The company reportedly runs including staff training sessions on the ‘genderbread person,’ which casts aside traditional notions of sex in favor of the gender spectrum.
Inside a John Deere plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, where over 100 jobs were cut this year
Robby Starbuck, the filmmaker and 2022 Republican House candidate for Tennessee, is on a mission to defeat wokery in corporate America
The allegations, and call for customers to complain to John Deere, come as the company sparks outrage by laying off American workers and moving more of its agricultural equipment manufacturing to Mexico.
Since October 2023, more than 1,000 John Deere workers have either been laid off or pushed into an early retirement across several plants in Iowa and Illinois.
In many instances, production that these US workers were responsible for has been shifted to new locations in Mexico.
Consumer’s Research, a conservative group, urged customers to contact the company to complain about how it’s ‘firing American workers’ while and also backing ‘one woke initiative after another.’
‘Let them know that promoting wokeness while laying off American workers is bad for business,’ the group said in a statement.
Starbuck’s posts about John Deere on X sparked a debate about whether conservatives should boycott companies that embraced DEI, or whether they were being unduly hostile to LGBTQ_+ people and minorities.
The tractor maker has been laying off staff and shifting operations to Mexico
More than 10,000 workers at John Deere went on strike for five weeks in 2021. They won a 10 percent raise for hourly earners and increased retirement benefits
John Deere’s Harvester Works facility in East Moline, Illinois, where 225 workers were indefinitely laid off in October 2023
It’s the latest in a series of conservative-led boycotts and campaigns against well-known brands that embrace progressive policies, which have hit Bud Light, Target, Cracker Barrel, Tractor Supply, The North Face, and many others.
Portrait of John Deere, the man who founded the company that bears his name to this day
For some, DEI schemes are important and necessary, as they can help to overcome historical racism and sexism and make it easier for people of all backgrounds to get ahead in education and work.
Critics say it’s a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly blows back on straight, white men.
Others say DEI schemes may be well-intentioned, but seldom achieve their desired goals and often make things worse by stirring up divisions in offices and classrooms.
John Deere is these days almost exclusively known for its green tractors and iconic leaping deer logo, was established nearly two centuries ago in 1837.
In its early days, it produced self scouring steel plows, which revolutionized farming and replaced the inferior cast iron plow that would often get stuck in sticky soil.
Now, John Deere, which still bears its founder’s name, manufactures everything from tractors, construction vehicles, mowers and even snowmobiles.
