Tractor Supply Co. recently has been nationally recognized for its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in the workplace. Last year, the Brentwood, Tennessee-based company made Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index and Newsweek’s inaugural list of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.
Tractor Supply sells farm supplies, animal feed, tools, fencing and clothing — “everything except tractors” — at more than 2,200 stores across 49 states, according to its website. It says its customers are primarily farmers, horse owners, ranchers, tradesmen and suburban and rural homeowners.
On June 6, conservative commentator Robby Starbuck wrote in a post on X 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. He pointed to its DEI hiring practices, in-office Pride Month decorations, climate change activism, and “funding sex changes.”
After a wave of backlash from conservatives, Tractor Supply on Thursday announced that it is ending all “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” programs and will no longer support LGBTQ and climate change causes.
“We work hard to live up to our mission and values every day and represent the values of the communities and customers we serve. We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart. Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business,” the company said in its announcement.
Tractor Supply said it will “eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment.”
The company said its corporate giving would “focus on rural America priorities, including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring non-business activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns.”
The Tennessee company also will break from the widespread U.S. corporate practice of submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign for the Corporate Equality Index score that the LGBTQ lobby group issues.
Climate change initiatives are also gone, as Tractor Supply promised to “withdraw our carbon emission goals, and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”
“We will continue to listen to our customers and team members. Your trust and confidence in us are the upmost importance, and we don’t take that lightly,” the company statement concluded.
Starbuck praised the outcome as a “massive victory for sanity,” and said this is the “first Fortune 300 company in our lifetimes to go backwards on ESG, DEI and all these woke causes and donations, in record speed.”
Wow. Incredible. All thanks to @robbystarbuck and free speech on X. We will get rid of DEI one company at a time 👏🔥
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 27, 2024
