When there is an attempt to dismantle a progressive cultural agenda, the agenda doesn’t just die out without a fight. The proponents shift, work harder to conceal their goals and prey on the unsuspecting. Most kids (and many adults) aren’t tuned into DEI lingo and therefore overlook the ideologies and agendas that accompany the seemingly benign language.
FFA members — a million teenagers across America — are currently a target market for proponents of the DEI cultural shift. Why? They are young, impressionable and the future corporate leaders in a sector of America’s economy that largely still holds traditional values: agriculture. It’s up to us as parents and concerned citizens to speak up on behalf of these kids and our country.
The following is a letter addressed to the Executive Director of Illinois FFA, Mindy Bunselmeyer & sent also to the National FFA CEO, Scott Stump regarding the DEI agenda and DEI document my kids are required to sign in order join FFA.
HERE is an article I wrote documenting sources and detailing the evidence of the DEI agenda within FFA, what it seeks to include and exclude.
HERE is an interview with Dan Janzen, Executive Director of Fellowship of Christian Farmers, discussing their banning from National Convention, originally on the basis of DEI and prior 25 year attendance.
Open Letter to Mindy Bunselmeyer also addressing the actions of Scott Stump
I spoke to you over the phone in 2024 when my daughter first joined Illinois FFA regarding our concerns surrounding the C.A.R.E. document and overall DEI (EDI) agenda within FFA. To be clear, our concern is not inclusion. We absolutely believe in including all and showing kindness to all people no matter what differences we may have.
Our concern rather has been that DEI is not actually inclusive as it seeks to spotlight differences and create conversations around those differences rather than focus on commonalities. When we claim to be affirming of everyone else’s beliefs, it eventually necessitates relinquishing your own. Documents, like the C.A.R.E. document, require members to become intellectually lazy. They require taking on moral relativism as a personal philosophy which my kids already know to be a fallacy.
Additionally, the ILaged website houses the C.A.R.E. document within mission and belonging which is linked with the engagement and belonging task-force. There you can access past “Cultivating Conversations” rooms where the FFA logo is merged with the Pride logo and a Trans Education video is linked as well. There are stickers honing in on race and sexuality as the key metrics for inclusion. Whereas Christianity has been specifically singled out and excluded both at the state level and nationally.
FFA is either inclusive or it is pushing a cultural and political agenda. The actions of FFA as an organization show which of those options is prevailing.
FFA was a huge asset to my education. I had the best advisor and many opportunities through the organization. I want my daughters to have speaking, CDE and competitive opportunities as well, but not at the expense of their intellect. I can’t ask them to sign on to agendas that hide behind doublespeak and ask them to lay down their own values.
My girls did enroll in FFA and plan to participate. But, as before, they will not be signing the C.A.R.E. document as it is in breach of their values. To use FFA’s terminology, implementing DEI has cultivated an environment that denies recognition and exploration of the ways in which my kids are different.
It is worth noting, if you haven’t, that National FFA adopted DEI into the Federal Charter in 2019 and by 2022 they partnered with Syngenta (a State owned – Chinese company) to advance the DEI policy. FFA CEO Scott Stump noted, “this partnership is part of a broader organizational transformation.” What better way to potentiate harm on a political adversary than to be welcomed in with open arms to implement ideologies and undermine tradition within an organization shaping young minds that go on to be the future leaders in American agriculture?
FFA as an organization needs to be clear with parents and the public: is it an agricultural organization promoting agricultural opportunities or is it a cultural organization that promotes cultural conformity? If the former is the answer, the creed, motto and brotherhood pledge should suffice as far as expectations for conduct and for members to unite around.
