I shared my thoughts on the the recent Tractor Supply announcement that it would cut funding to environmental and diversity programs in my local paper... but it was tough to share what I wanted to share in 200 words or less. The following is what I would have liked to share with you all regarding the news that Tractor Supply cuts DEI program.
Tractor Supply Cuts DEI Program
Life out here is hard enough; we do not need our feed stores (I am looking at you, Tractor Supply Co.) to normalize the actual dangers we face or cut diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
As farmers--particularly those of us who deal with livestock--are uniquely privy to facts about natural instinct. Let's call it the natural order of things.
Rule of Natural Order: Birds of A Feather Flock Together
But it's not just birds. "Sheep of a fleece flock together" would be just as accurate... it just lacks the catchy rhyme. The old adage comes to us from the Book of Sirach 27:9, written approximately between 196 and 175 BCE, and is as true today as the day it was written.
It is a natural instinct to gravitate toward others who are similar to us. We see this everyday in our pastures; animals of the same breed or species are more likely to flock together. The Shetland sheep are clustered under the mulberry while the Gotland sheep graze atop the hill. The ponies are across the field entirely.
We humans are similar. It is natural and normal. This instinct to gravitate toward the known and avoid the “other” can be credited with keeping us alive this long as a species. (As we farmers know, temperament is highly heritable: The natural selection process favored those of us who were not TOO curious, rewarding us with the opportunity to pass on our genes to our not TOO curious offspring.)
Over the centuries, we have faced fewer threats to our life for straying too far from the fold, but for the sake of maintaining order (read: control), we have manufactured threats.
The pressure to "fit in" is intense, and this is not by mistake or accident.
Sir Bedevere: "There are ways of telling whether she is a witch."
Peasants: "Are there? What are they? Tell us." "Do they hurt?"
Sir Bedevere: "Tell me, what do you do with witches?"
Peasants: "Burn them!"
Sir Bedevere: "And what do you burn, apart from witches?"
Peasants: "More witches!" "Wood!"
Sir Bedevere: "So why do witches burn?"
Peasants: "'Cause they're made of wood?"
Sir Bedevere: "How do we tell if she is made of wood...does wood sink in water?"
Peasants: "No, it floats."
Sir Bedevere: "What also floats in water?"
Peasants: "A duck!"
Sir Bedevere: "Exactly. So, logically, if she weighs the same as a duck..."
Peasants: "...she's made of wood."
Sir Bedevere: "And therefore?"
Peasants: "A witch!"
Peasants: "Here's a duck."
Sir Bedevere: "We shall use my largest scales."
Peasants: "Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?"
Ridiculous, right?
We have evolved to be a highly intelligent species, capable of a great deal of self-awareness and self-reflection. We have also created power structures in this world that have an enormous impact on which groups of people will have the most access to resources and opportunities.
The justifications we use for keeping ourselves in power, and for giving the Other a two-legged stool as their seat at the table are, quite frankly, not a great deal more logical or refined than that of Sir Bedevere. What's more... it does not hurt just those whom we burn. It hurts us. And it hurts our businesses. A recent article in Forbes points out:
"Diversity can help your team become more agile and be better equipped to pivot and adapt as necessary to remain competitive. As data from McKinsey reveals, the top quartile of companies for ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to financially outperform their less diverse peers." - One More Time: Why Diversity Leads To Better Team Performance by Ron Carucci
Carucci goes on to note that "companies with representation of women exceeding 30 percent (and thus in the top quartile) are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with 30 percent or fewer." (This should not even be surprising, as women are more successful investors than men.)
To borrow the words of activist Gloria Steinem, "The power justifications could probably go on forever." They are comfortable for many of us, and familiar for most of us.
The man-made power structures at play in today’s world mean that we need to make highly concerted efforts to make sure our tendency to surround ourselves with “similar” people does not prevent others from having a place at the table.
Keeping these largely unconscious biases in check is hard work, and the external guidance of DEI programs helps to ensure we give everyone a chance to be at the table. It is too easy to fall back on our natural tendency to surround ourselves with those that look or act the same way we look and act. This looks like white men hiring white men, promoting white men, and suddenly our companies are governed by a rather homogeneous group of people who tend to share more similar world views than those outside of their group.
Successful DEI initiatives encourage companies to include those who have been excluded from the table for far too long. Some groups of people have faced far more barriers to farming than others. (Remember, the legal right to own land was not afforded to women or POCs until fairly recently. And it was not so long ago that a gay man was tied to a section of buck fence in
Tractor Supply has chosen to drop its DEI program and goals. I want to know, Tractor Supply, how will you continue to give your customers the benefit of having all kinds of farming folk in your boardrooms? How will you ensure that women, POCs, and members of the LGBT community will continue to have an equal opportunity for employment in their stores?
"The power justifications could probably go on forever," Steinem warned us. "If we let them."
I hope there will be answers to share with you. In the meantime, I would like to part with my fellow shepherds and equestrians and dairy producers and viticulturists and beekeepers and all of you who provide the world with food and fiber no matter how difficult "life out here" can be: May we dream of a world where we judge others not by the color of their skin but by the color of their tractors.
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