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.”
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.
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.
You’re cute, deflecting the issue away from Palestine and genocide. It almost slipped past us.