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.”
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.