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One of the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has quit.
Jerry Greenfield, who formed the company alongside Ben Cohen in 1978 at a renovated petrol pump, has resigned from the firm. “I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry’s,” Greenfield wrote in a letter posted online.
“Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.” Greenfield said it was one of the “hardest and most painful decisions” he had ever made in a letter shared online by Cohen.
What happened?
Greenfield quit Ben & Jerry’s amid a
growing rift with the firm’s parent company Unilever. Greenfield has accused Unilever, which bought the company in 2000, of trying to curb its social mission. The two men had negotiated an independent social mission board for Ben & Jerry’s at the
time of sale.
The founders of Ben & Jerry’s have been at odds with Unilever since 2021, when they announced that the company would no longer sell its ice cream in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem –
both of which Israel captured in the Six-Day War in 1967 and controls via its military.
The areas combined have around 700,000 settlers, with Israel considering East Jerusalem part of its capital. However, this is not recognised by the international community or considered legal under international law.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, consider the West Bank theirs. They also seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.
Ben & Jerry’s at the time said selling its products in the West Bank would be “inconsistent with our values.” The company then sued Unilever over what it claims were efforts to silence it. The firm has openly called the events taking place in Gaza a “genocide” and claimed that Unilever has tried to stifle its views on the need to take care of Palestinian refugees and stop giving military aid to Israel.
Ben & Jerry’s also claimed that Unilever threatened it would strip the company of its independent board and sue the firm’s directors for their public statements on Gaza.
A Unilever spokesperson said at the time: “Our heart goes out to all victims of the tragic events in the Middle East. We reject the claims made by B&J’s social mission board, and we will defend our case very strongly. We would not comment further on this legal matter.”
Unilever later reversed the decision not to sell the products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This came after much criticism from Israel, whose then foreign minister Yair Lapid called the original decision “a shameful capitulation to antisemitism.” Unilever also sold off Ben & Jerry’s in Israel to a local business.
Ben & Jerry’s in March claimed Unilever had breached the agreement it made at the time of purchase by ousting then-CEO David Stever over its public stance on progressive issues. The firm in January claimed Unilever “unilaterally censored” a social media post referencing abortion, climate change and universal healthcare merely because it mentioned President Donald Trump.
What did Greenfield say?
Greenfield said he could no longer “in good conscience” continue working for a company that had been “silenced” by Unilever, despite a merger agreement meant to safeguard the brand’s social mission.
“That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever,” he wrote in the letter.
“Standing up for the values of justice, equity, and our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,” Greenfield said. “And it’s happening at a time when our country’s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community.”
“It’s with a broken heart that I’ve decided I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry’s,” he added.
Greenfield said at the time the sale went through, they were promised “independence to pursue (their) values.”
“For more than twenty years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry’s stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice, and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world,” Greenfield wrote. “It’s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone,” he added. “If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”
Known for progressive activism
Both Greenfield and Cohen are known for their progressive activism. Cohen in May was arrested for disrupting a United States Senate hearing to protest Washington’s backing for Israel’s war in Gaza and the humanitarian conditions there, which experts have been warning about. Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war, following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel. Cohen was charged with a misdemeanour offence.
The company has also backed LGBTQ+ rights and raised awareness about climate change. Anna Macdonald, investment partner at Aubrey Investments, told the BBC that the firm had “built a brand all about irreverence and activism and advocacy.” She added that Unilever had said it would “continue these missions” at the time it purchased the firm.
Ben & Jerry’s has accused its parent firm of ordering it to halt publicly slamming US President Donald Trump. Macdonald said Greenfield “has moved on because he doesn’t want to be associated with what’s happening now.” While neither man was running the firm’s operations, they both had remained employees to protect the company’s social mission.
It also comes as Ben & Jerry’s has been calling for its own spin-off ahead of a planned listing of Magnum Ice Cream in November. Last week Cohen demanded that Unilever “free Ben & Jerry’s” to protect its social values, which was rebuffed by new Magnum CEO Peter Kulve.
Cohen said the brand had attempted to engineer a sale to investors at a fair market value between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion but the proposal was rejected. Cohen claimed Unilever’s actions have devalued Ben & Jerry’s business.
A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever’s ice cream unit, said that it “disagrees with Greenfield’s perspective and has sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world.”
“We will be forever grateful to Jerry for his role in co-founding such an amazing ice cream company, turning his passion for delicious ice cream and addressing social causes into a remarkable success story,” the spokesperson said. “We thank him for his service and support over many decades and wish him well in his next chapter.” Magnum said Greenfield stepped down as a brand ambassador and that he is not a party to the lawsuit.
With inputs from agencies
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