Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream is becoming simply Ben’s ice-cream, is it?
No, Jerry Greenfield is leaving the company after almost 50 years following an increasingly bitter dispute with Unilever, the multinational that bought his and Ben Cohen’s company 25 years ago.
And what was this dispute about?
The row started in 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Then Unilever sold Ben & Jerry’s Israel division to a local operator, undercutting that aim. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever of threatening to dismantle its board and sue directors over their support of Palestinians in Gaza. That support did not waver and earlier this year Cohen was arrested and charged with “crowding and obstructing” during a protest against the Gaza blockade at a US Senate hearing.
And things have escalated now, have they?
Undoubtedly. In his resignation letter – also posted on Cohen’s social media pages – Greenfield said leaving was “one of the hardest and most painful decisions” of his life, but added that he could not “in good conscience” work for a business that had been “silenced”. Both men have described themselves as “proud Jews”.
But if Greenfield sold his stake 25 years ago, why was he still there?
The sale included a clause that the brand would have its own board independent of Unilever so it could maintain its progressive stances on social and political issues, and Cohen and Greenfield stayed on as employees to safeguard the brand’s social mission.
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Social mission? Do they not just make ice cream?
“We love making ice cream – but using our business to make the world a better place gives our work its meaning,” is what the Ben & Jerry’s website says.
How have they tried to make the world a better place?
You mean apart from making lovely ice cream with cool names such as Cherry Garcia? From 1986, Ben & Jerry’s has donated almost 10 per cent of its pretax profits to charities. In the early 1990s, they were vocal in their support of Farm Aid, which wanted to keep family farmers on their land. It has run campaigns with the Children’s Defense Fund and was vocal in its opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic. It backed the Occupy Wall Street movement and has been an advocate of LGBTQ+ rights and addressing the climate crisis.
Has the activism stalled?
According to Greenfield’s letter, Unilever put a halt to its social activism.
What has Unilever said about that?
The Magnum Ice Cream Company, which is being spun off from Unilever, said it disagreed with his perspective “and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world”.
