OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
1:20 PM – Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet brand, has resigned from the company after 47 years — citing a loss of the brand’s “independence” to advocate for social justice issues under its parent company, Unilever.
Ben Cohen, the brand’s other co-founder, shared his business partner’s open letter on X, confirming that Jerry has made “the difficult decision to step down from the company we built together.”
“His legacy deserves to be true to our values, not silenced by @MagnumGlobal,” he wrote.
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In March last year, Unilever announced plans to spin off its ice cream business, which includes brands like Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, into a separate entity called The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC). The separation is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 — with a public listing planned in Amsterdam, London, and New York.
“It’s with a broken heart that I’ve decided I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry’s,” Greenfield wrote. “I am resigning from the company Ben and I started back in 1978. This is one of the most painful decisions I’ve ever made.”
“What allowed the company to be more than just an ice cream company, was the independence to pursue our values, which was guaranteed when Unilever bought the company,” he said. “For more than twenty 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.
The Ben & Jerry’s founders have been outspoken about their left-wing political views. On the company’s website, there is a page dedicated to “Issues We Care About,” which lists racial justice first. The company has also boasted about how it “took a stand in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
“We have to say his name: George Floyd,” the company said in a prior statement.
The ice cream company expresses its support for the LGBTQ+ community on its website as well, saying “the community—and trans people in particular—remains under threat. … So, we’re not hanging up our rainbow-colored activist hats yet, and neither should you.”
Despite the company website’s claim that both founders are “…non-partisan and we don’t support candidates, political parties or super PACS,” Cohen and Greenfield raffled off free pints of ice cream in the Scoop the Vote campaign hosted by MoveOn, working to “elect Kamala Harris and Democrats down the ballot” during the former vice president’s 2024 run for president.
Ben & Jerry’s even introduced an ice cream flavor called “Kamala’s Coconut Jubilee,” being described as a “creamy coconut-based treat” that celebrates failed 2024 Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The packaging features an image of Harris smiling, making it another politically inspired addition to the brand’s lineup.
In November last year, Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever in federal court in New York for allegedly silencing their statements in support of Palestinians. In its complaint, Ben & Jerry’s also accused Unilever of refusing to let the Ben & Jerry’s company make a social media post that identified their personal issue with President Donald Trump’s second term.
“It’s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone,” Greenfield went on. “And it’s happening at a time when our country’s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community.”
Greenfield noted that “if the company couldn’t stand up” for what they believe in, “then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”
“It was always about more than just ice cream; it was a way to spread love and invite others into the fight for equity, justice and a better world,” Greenfield added.
A Magnum Ice Cream company spokesperson thanked Greenfield for his role in co-founding the company, but also added: “We disagree with his perspective and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world.”
“We remain committed to Ben & Jerry’s unique three-part mission — product, economic and social — and remain focused on carrying forward the legacy of peace, love, and ice cream of this iconic, much-loved brand,” Magnum’s statement said.
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