UPDATE: NATIONAL FFA’S SLEIGHT OF HAND EXPOSED!
The National FFA Organization wants the public to believe it has backed away from its divisive DEI agenda. In August, the organization quietly scrubbed its DEI introduction video, “National FFA Agricultural Education For All Town Hall,” from its website — no announcement, no explanation, just gone. (You can still view a downloaded copy of the video they don’t want you to see anymore here). For an organization that constantly preaches transparency and leadership, the silence spoke volumes.
But any hope that FFA had reversed course was short-lived. At the upcoming National FFA Convention & Expo, national leadership is hosting what is framed as an “Enrichment Session” for state officers and delegates titled “The Root of Empowerment: Cultivating Belonging in the FFA.” Behind the warm buzzwords in the title, the event’s goal is clear: to shamelessly lobby support for a delegate proposal called “Expanding Belonging and Engagement” — advancing the same failed DEI platform dressed up with friendlier language. The proposal was authored by Scott Stump, FFA’s CEO, and endorsed by the Board of Directors. The conflict of interest is clear — the CEO has directed his staff to secure votes for his proposal, treating the state officers and delegates as pawns in his game of DEI chess.
This is not reform. It’s rebranding. FFA’s leadership hasn’t abandoned DEI — it has buried the acronym and kept the ideology. Removing a video while doubling down behind closed doors is a deliberate act of deception, not progress. Even the primary facilitator for the enrichment session, Corey Flournoy, has recently gotten in on the game, changing his title from Executive in Residence for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to that of Belonging and Engagement.
You can see an excerpt from the minutes from the National FFA Board meeting documenting the sleight of hand to the left or read ine actual minutes here.
For an organization built on honesty, integrity, and the development of future leaders, this kind of bait-and-switch is more than disappointing — it’s disqualifying. The National FFA owes its members the truth, not the same social engineering effort masquerading as “belonging.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the quiet part out loud: America’s military is not a social experiment. In his recent speech, he made it clear that the Department of War will abandon the alphabet soup of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI) programs that have metastasized across federal agencies. His point was simple: DEI is a distraction. A military exists to win wars, not to check boxes.
Yet while the Pentagon moves on, the National FFA Organization is now doubling down on failed dogma of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Its employment policies and youth leadership programs still enshrine DEI as sacred doctrine. That decision doesn’t just make FFA politically out of step with the Trump administration’s reforms—it leaves the group legally exposed in a world where affirmative action and quota-style thinking are rapidly being dismantled.
FFA: Doubling Down on a Failed Model
The National FFA’s employment manual reads like a mandate from the Obama years. It declares FFA an “affirmative action employer,” promising to consider an endless list of identity categories from gender identity to national origin . It directs executives to take an “active role” in pushing diversity initiatives .
This isn’t equal opportunity—it’s a bureaucracy of identity. Instead of hiring and promoting based on skill, FFA insists that identity itself is a qualification. That approach is no longer popular, no longer defensible, and increasingly no longer legal.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders in Yesterday’s Lessons
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become so entrenched in National FFA that it’s even seeped into the organization’s once-respected leadership training. A look at the syllabus for just one upcoming program shows it saturated with buzzwords like “intercultural competencies” and “leaning into vulnerability.” Students are instructed to dissect their own biases, complete self-assessments, and treat discomfort as a leadership skill.
This isn’t leadership—it’s therapy disguised as training. America’s next generation of agricultural leaders doesn’t need to learn how to be vulnerable; they need to learn how to be competent. They need discipline, grit, and merit-based advancement—the very values the Pentagon is reasserting. Instead, FFA is teaching the language of academic seminar rooms that have already been repudiated by the courts and the political class.
Out of Step, Out of Time
FFA’s path puts it at odds with both its own membership and the country at large. Its base—students, families, and professionals rooted in rural America—is more aligned with the Trump administration’s reforms than with the woke HR playbook of corporate America. Yet FFA leadership seems determined to lecture rather than lead.
Worse, FFA’s policies are on a collision course with the law. The age of affirmative action and DEI mandates is closing. States are dismantling DEI bureaucracies. Courts are striking down identity-based hiring. The Pentagon itself has said enough. FFA, meanwhile, is setting itself up for lawsuits, political backlash, and irrelevance.
The Bottom Line
The Pentagon has read the moment correctly: merit wins wars, not DEI. Secretary Hegseth’s decision to scrap diversity initiatives is a return to strength, cohesion, and constitutional principle. The National FFA, by contrast, looks like an organization stuck in a past that is vanishing fast.
At best, its clinging to DEI makes it tone-deaf. At worst, it puts the group at odds with the very legal and political structures it must navigate. America deserves better. Young leaders deserve better. And if the Pentagon can restore meritocracy in the face of global threats, surely the FFA can stop lecturing about identity and start teaching excellence.
Because in the end, it’s not diversity that saves nations. It’s competence.