Greenfield said in the statement announcing his resignation that before agreeing to the merger with Unilever in 2000, he and Cohen negotiated the right to maintain their independence and continue supporting \u201cpeace, justice and human rights\u201d through the brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone,\u201d Greenfield said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s happening at a time when our country\u2019s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever\u2019s ice cream unit, said in an emailed statement that the company disagreed with Greenfield\u2019s \u201cperspective\u201d and has \u201csought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry\u2019s powerful values-based position in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over nearly half a century, Cohen and Greenfield grew Ben & Jerry\u2019s from the small ice cream shop they opened out of a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, into a global confectionary giant, with store locations and pints sold around the world. Along with its corporate activism, Ben & Jerry\u2019s has become known for unique flavours \u2013 the company says it was the first to come up with cookie dough ice cream \u2013 and kooky, often hippie-inspired names like Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and Wavy Gravy.<\/p>\n
In the social media post with Greenfield\u2019s statement, Cohen said his partner\u2019s legacy \u201cdeserves to be true to our values\u201d.<\/p>\n
Greenfield\u2019s resignation comes as companies across the United States are facing pressure fuelled by the Trump administration to ditch diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, such as anti-racism training and Pride Month festivities. In January, Amazon removed its commitment to helping Black people live \u201cfree from fear\u201d, while Missouri\u2019s attorney general sued Starbucks in February in federal court, alleging that the coffee chain\u2019s DEI practices have made its workforce \u201cmore female and less white\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following Ben & Jerry\u2019s 2021 decision to stop selling ice cream in the occupied West Bank, Unilever shares dropped, prompting US investors to sue for damages the following year. Unilever announced in 2022 that the ice cream brand had been sold to an Israeli licensee and that sales in Palestinian territory occupied by Israel would continue. The ice cream brand wrote on X that it did not agree with the sale and that it still views its operations in those disputed areas as \u201cinconsistent with Ben & Jerry\u2019s values\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStanding up for the values of justice, equity and our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry\u2019s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,\u201d Greenfield said in his resignation statement. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to stand up and speak out when there\u2019s nothing at risk. The real test of values is when times are challenging and you have something to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greenfield said in the statement announcing his resignation that before agreeing to the merger with Unilever in 2000,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16977,24752,28119,17517,9218,15361,4463,138,19707,1656,5770,2066,9060,19363,28118,25993,28115,28116,7973,28123,28126,7239,130,28125,111,139,69,28122,6185,28124,28120,3048,2687,28117,131,1361,165,28121],"class_list":["post-28477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-activism","tag-ago","tag-amp","tag-because","tag-before","tag-ben","tag-brand","tag-business","tag-cofounders","tag-company","tag-core","tag-cream","tag-decades","tag-founders","tag-greenfield","tag-independence","tag-jerry","tag-jerrys","tag-leaves","tag-liberal","tag-merger","tag-mission","tag-more","tag-negotiated","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pairs","tag-parent","tag-reneged","tag-resigning","tag-said","tag-saying","tag-silenced","tag-than","tag-that","tag-their","tag-unilever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}