TSC caves to RWNJ pressure. Consumer boycott begins.
An open letter to Tractor Supply Company
Dear Tractor Supply Company,
I am a professor of agriculture at two universities (one blue collar, state school and one ivy-league). I also have a degree in marketing, so I’ve been fascinated watching your communications debacle all week. I know you’ve probably received a lot of angry emails with customers canceling accounts and cutting up TSC cards, but that is not my intention. (1/?)
I understand you received pressure when you made your original DEI and climate initiative statement and I also get that you want to honor your base, rural farmers who have been the majority of your business for decades. But times are changing and I believe you are on the wrong side. Consider these two arguments. (2/?)
As an agriculture instructor, I teach between 50 and 100 students per semester. Most are clueless about farming and have no idea where their food comes from. It’s my job to explain how farming works and why it is in jeopardy. One of the lessons I share is that the farming population is aging quickly. (3/?)
I know you know this. You also probably know that the average person entering farming is very young, under 30 in many cases. The next generation of farmers look nothing like your “base.” They accept the LQTBQ+ community like it’s no big deal, they support Black and brown people, they are enthusiastic and hopeful. They are less and less white, straight and male. (4/?)
After class, sometimes students come to ask questions or for clarification. They want to know how to start a garden or a farm. They want to know about WOOFing opportunities. They want to volunteer on farms to learn more. But it is rarely the white, conservative student-athlete. It’s the girl with the nose ring and the purple hair. It’s the boy with the painted fingernails. It’s the student from Mexico who fled to the US. (5/?)
Tractor Supply, THESE are your future farmers and future customers. You are appeasing a base that will soon be gone.
I speak to farmers. I know you do too. You wouldn't be successful if you didn't do market research and speak to your customers. But have you considered that they are scared to tell you the truth?
I got into a debate online with a young farmer about climate change and when I went into DMs to discuss the matter further, he freely admitted they are seeing and suffering the impact of climate change but he can’t say it in public because he might get blasted by the older farmers in his community. He can only say “weather.” I visit farmers often during the summer when I am not teaching and they are ALL concerned about climate change. They won’t speak openly about it but they are suffering.
Just hop on agriculture.com or seed world for daily articles about how the crops are struggling due to lack of water, biodiversity, heat, storms, pest pressure. Or follow Will Harris of White Oak pastures. He is a straight, white male over 65 who loves the 2nd Amendment. He is your base for sure, but he sees climate change for the reality that it is and he also has a gay daughter.
I think you are abandoning the very customer you will need to stay relevant and profitable in years to come. It’s not too late to fix this.
Yours,
Toni Farmer MES
Tractor Supply Company, which bills itself as the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the U.S., will eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) roles, withdraw its carbon emissions goals and stop sponsoring Pride events in response to criticism from conservative activists.
The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company announced the series of sweeping changes in a statement shared to social media on Thursday, bringing a weeks-long, right-wing pressure campaign to a close.
“We work hard to live up to our Mission and Values every day and represent the values of the communities and customers we serve,” it said. “We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.”
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.
The Fortune 500 company has been nationally recognized as an inclusive and diverse workplace, including last year in Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index and Newsweek’s inaugural list of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.
But it recently became the target of conservative ire for that very reason, as the latest in a growing series of retailers to face backlash over — and ultimately walk back — its DEI initiatives.
Robby Starbuck, a music video director and Republican who ran unsuccessfully to represent Tennessee's 5th Congressional District in 2022, launched the campaign against Tractor Supply on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month.
He wrote on June 6 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,” among other complaints.
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