LOVE. EQUITY. JUSTICE.

Every business gets asked to support charitable causes, but few take their social responsibility quite as seriously as Ben & Jerry's, the ice-cream brand founded in 1978 that has always spoken out in support of peace, justice and human rights. Now, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream brand, has resigned from the company he and Ben Cohen started 47 years ago.

On Tuesday 16 September 2025 Greenfield wrote in an open letter to the Ben & Jerry's community that he could no longer "in good conscience" remain an employee of the company that has been silenced, "sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power."

He said that, "from the very beginning the company's values and pursuit of justice were more important than the company itself," and that the independence to carry those values forward inside the company was guaranteed when packaged food giant Unilever bought the brand in 2000 for US$326 million. Greenfield praised the people in the business, those working in the factories, franchise outlets and offices and pointed out that the brand's social mission and values had been enshrined in perpetuity in the governance structure negotiated with Unilever at the time of the sale and largely honoured for several decades until recently. Efforts to show support for student protesters, the people of Gaza and racial inequity have been quashed by the executive directives from new Unilever's ice cream division, Magnum.

In the days before Jerry Greenfield's resignation, his co-founder Ben Cohen had been actively campaigning under the #FreeBenandJerrys banner for Magnum to sell Ben & Jerry's to a group of people who would continue to support the values of the brand.