Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield, whose name helped shape the popular ice cream brand, has quit the company after 47 years, as the company’s rift with parent Unilever deepened over the former’s stance on the war in Gaza.
In a letter that co-founder Ben Cohen posted on X on Greenfield's behalf, Greenfield said that he felt the independence the brand had to speak on social issues and events was lost to Unilever.
“For more than 20 years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry's stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world,” he wrote.
“That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever, one that enshrined our social mission and values in the company's governance structure in perpetuity. It's profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.”
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Chubby Hubby maker said it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The brand has since sued its parent over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza war as "genocide," a rare stance for a major US company.
A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever's ice cream unit, said that it "disagrees with 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."
Magnum said Greenfield stepped down as a brand ambassador and that he is not a party to the lawsuit.
Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
Last week Cohen demanded to "free Ben & Jerry's" to protect its social values, which was rebuffed by new Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve.
Cohen said the brand had attempted to engineer a sale to investors at a fair market value between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, but the proposal was rejected.
Ben & Jerry's was founded by Cohen and Greenfield in a renovated gas station in 1978, and kept its socially conscious mission after Unilever bought it in 2000.
