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.

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 completely eliminate its DEI policies and no longer participate in Corporate Equality Index scoring from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S.

Starbuck, a 35-year-old Cuban American, told The Associated Press that “it’s not lost on me my kids would benefit from this stuff,” but he opposes hiring decisions that factor in race, as well as DEI initiatives, employee resource groups that promote non-professional activities and any policies that in his view allow social issues and politics to become part of a company culture.

“People should go to work without having to feel like they have to behave a certain way in order to be acceptable to their employer,” he said.

Starbuck and other conservative activists celebrated Brentwood, Tennessee-based Tractor Supply for taking a more aggressive approach than John Deere last month by pledging to eliminate all of its DEI roles while retiring current DEI goals and stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign.

But the move also sparked outrage from critics of the new position, who have argued that Tractor Supply is giving in to hate.

John Deere’s move has faced similar pushback. Eric Bloem, vice president of programs and corporate advocacy at the Human Rights Campaign, called the announcement “disappointing” and “a direct result of a coordinated attack by far-right extremists on American business.”