{"id":149715,"date":"2025-09-17T12:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149715\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:31:09","slug":"ben-jerrys-co-founder-jerry-greenfield-quits-over-gaza-dispute-with-parent-company-unilever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149715\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben & Jerry’s co-founder, Jerry Greenfield, quits over Gaza dispute with parent company Unilever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, has quit the ice cream firm as its rift with parent company Unilever deepened over its stance on the Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n

In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry’s community that was shared by his partner Ben Cohen on social media platform X on Wednesday, Mr Greenfield said that the Vermont-based company has lost its independence since Unilever curtailed its social activism.<\/p>\n

Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the maker of their Chubby Hubby ice cream flavour said it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The brand has since sued its parent over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza conflict as “genocide”, a rare stance for a major US company.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry’s has campaigned on numerous social issues, including racial justice, abortion rights and climate change. (Reuters: Andrew Kelly)<\/p>\n

Mr 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.<\/p>\n

“That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever,” he wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry’s clashes with parent company<\/a><\/p>\n

The ice cream maker has once again clashed with its parent company Unilever over its stance on Gaza, claiming its CEO was unlawfully dismissed.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever’s ice cream unit, said that it “disagrees with Mr 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”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Magnum said Mr Greenfield stepped down as a brand ambassador and that he is not a party to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Ben and Jerry’s history of activism as it accuses parent company of silencing it on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n

It has once again clashed with its parent company Unilever over its stance on Gaza, leading to a lawsuit alleging Unilever has silenced efforts to express support for Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n

Mr Greenfield’s departure comes as Ben & Jerry’s has been calling for its own spin-off ahead of a planned listing of Magnum Ice Cream in November after years of clashing over the US brand’s vocal position on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Last week Mr Cohen demanded to “free Ben & Jerry’s” to protect its social values, which was rebuffed by new Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

On September 9 Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, held a sign in protest to the Magnum Ice Cream Company in Grosvenor Square, London. (Reuters: Shokirie Clarke)<\/p>\n

Mr Cohen said the brand had attempted to engineer a sale to investors at a fair market value between $US1.5 billion ($2.25 billion) and $US2.5 billion ($3.75 billion) but the proposal was rejected.<\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry’s was founded by Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield in a renovated gas station in 1978, and kept its socially conscious mission after Unilever bought it in 2000.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, has quit the ice cream firm as its rift with parent company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,100728,100731,100729,99,35758,100730,62426],"class_list":{"0":"post-149715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ben-jerrys","11":"tag-ben-and-jerries","12":"tag-ben-cohen","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-ice-cream","15":"tag-jerry-greenfield","16":"tag-unilever"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}