Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand, has stepped down from the company he started 47 years ago citing a retreat from its campaigning spirit under parent company Unilever.
Greenfield wrote in an open letter late Tuesday night — shared on X by his co-founder Ben Cohen — that he could no longer “in good conscience” remain an employee of the company and said the company had been “silenced.”
He said the company’s values and campaigning work on “peace, justice, and human rights” allowed it to be “more than just an ice cream company” and said the independence to pursue this was guaranteed when Anglo-Dutch packaged food giant Unilever bought the brand in 2000 for $326 million.
Cohen’s statement didn’t mention Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza, but Ben & Jerry’s has been outspoken on the treatment of Palestinians for years and in 2021 withdrew sales from Israeli settlements in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Fuck Ben & Jerry. They were bankrolling campaign against supply of military equipment to Ukraine.
I don’t agree with it, but it’s a pacifist viewpoint consistent with free speech.
There is nothing pacifist with letting russians genocide Ukrainians freely. We already saw what happens when USA stops military aid, russia goes on offensive emboldened by such actions.
Every time you buy the ice-cream you vote for the company to exist - if you are not happy about the company’s actions in Palestine or elsewhere the next step should be very easy to figure out.
In fact Unilever has a t least another couple of brands you can try to resist to show that maybe this shit show isn’t what you want in the world.
Nothing says “let’s change” to a capitalist like a dripping sales.
Boycotting is easier said than done, given that there a really just a handful of companies who own all the companies in the world
You can avoid as many “value added” products as possible. Buy food ingredients instead of packaged things. You’ll save money, and these companies will get less of it. You’ll be healthier too.
In an organized manner. Otherwise it has no idea what’s going on.
This post’s comments showcases the bad part of the left. The part thats no difference from MAGA, ugly and pointing fingers at something for a distraction. But instead theyre MALA, make America left again with even more political correctness.
I feel it more wanting to see it as a black and white issue than something with a ton of nuance. This deal had to have been complex, and for whatever reason they willingly sold to Unilever, I doubt any of us commenting here will ever understand. I wouldn’t want to be in their situation.
If people want to point out areas where they think they could have done better, let’s discuss it. But all we tend to get is “rich people bad.” I won’t totally disagree with that statement, but it seems like they have also done a lot of good for Vermont and beyond. They’ve given over 70 million in grants, but so what, right? Why not 71 million?!
I just think we’ve got better people to be mad at now than some hippies that went corporate. To just write off what they did because they got personal benefits as well is likely hypocritical. I never see these screen names talking about what direct action they’re part of or what solutions they’ve got. A little funny how that is.
If they want to complain or downvote, that’s their prerogative, but I bet it won’t accomplish as much good as what Ben and Jerry have done. 😉
Companys that were evil back when they sold didnt seem as evil compared to nowadays. I think thats the missing nuance. But i agree wholeheartedly with you.
lyrics to a Chumbawamba song about Unilever from 1986
When you don′t want to feed the world When you just want to feed your bank balance Wash your guilt away (whitewash) Unilever washes whiter (whitewash) Soap to clean those dirty hands And a slap for the people who work the land chorus Unilever (whitewa-, whitewash) Man-made hunger (wh-wh-whitewash) Soap in our eyes (whitewa-, whitewash) John West is the best (wh-wh-whitewash) Old soap opera (whitewa-, whitewash) No soap-reality (whitewash) Legal slave trade (whitewa-, whitewash) Domestos kills all known truths dead
You didn’t have to sell it to them asshole
Unilever the never-left-russia-still-there-today Unilever?
I’m sick and tired of this clown. He keeps rambling about how he values “independence” and his “values”, but if that’s the case why the fuck did he decide to sell his independent company and it’s founding values to a giant soulless corporation like Unilever? He and Ben sold the company 25 years ago for a nice fat paycheck, and haven’t looked back since. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of their “moral consciousness” only started becoming public after they sold out and cashed out. They willingly gave up their independence and values for money, and now they’re acting shocked that they don’t have as much control over the company they sold as they imagined.
You’re cute, deflecting the issue away from Palestine and genocide. It almost slipped past us.
Him being a hypocrite doesn’t change anything.
If people boycott the company over his comments it’s not like he benefits in any way.
Maybe, but I have a hard time giving people like him the benefit of the doubt. I honestly would not surprised if he used moves like this launch a podcast or something like that in the not so distant future.
Told you so.
I mean, the first mistake was trusting a pinkie promise from a megacorp like Unilever. Maybe they shouldn’t have sold their brand?
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More like if you mind your own business jizzrael will swoop in to ethnically cleanse, steal your land and cry victim.
Yeah. This is surprised Pikachu material.
Dabbling in stocks and as I grow older and working longer under a corporation, I realised it’s hard to be ethical in a capitalist system.
Yup. Chase what’s right and moral or chase money. They don’t overlap often.
A capitalist system is designed to prevent from acting based on ethics.
With a net worth of 150 million dollars, maybe he could go make his own ice cream store and campaign from that platform? And then not sell out to a giant megacorp and act surprised then they do mega corpo stuff.
It’s likely that the sale included clauses that they could not make a competing ice cream brand. That kind of stuff is common for brands that are based on personality or name recognition like Ben & Jerry’s.
Yeah you’re probably right. Bad move on his part if he wanted to avoid this.
just Bens now.
I met Jerry during the Bernie campaign. He was serving ice cream to campaign volunteers. He’s a nice man.
They both came to the Occupy camp I was at and handed out free ice cream.
He should haven’t sold the company. Even if that was guaranteed as part of the sale, he is looking at a decade of legal battles.
https://boycott-israel.org/boycott.html
When Ben & Jerry’s decided to stop selling its products in Israel, Unilever sold off the Israeli distribution rights to Avi Zinger to circumvent their decision and to force Ben & Jerry’s brand name to continue selling in Israel.
Guess you shouldn’t have sold out to capitalists, Jerry. FAFO.
