He and co-founder Ben Cohen are known for their activism on issues including climate change and human rights.
Greenfield alleged parent company Unilever sought to stop them from speaking “in support of peace, justice and human rights”.
Activism
Ben & Jerry’s has long advocated for a range of social justice issues, including LGBTQIA+ rights and climate action.
In 2021, Greenfield and Cohen sued Unilever after it sold the right to make and sell their ice cream in Israel, the West Bank and East Jerusalem (the Occupied Palestinian Territory) without their permission.
Greenfield and Cohen had previously said they wanted an existing deal to elapse without being renewed because the sale of their products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was “inconsistent with their values”.
The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel illegally occupies this area.
Ben & Jerry’s also launched a lawsuit against Unilever last year, accusing it of trying to stop the company’s directors from publicly supporting a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees.
Cohen was arrested for protesting U.S. weapons sales to Israel, and Israel’s blockade of aid to Gaza, at a U.S. Senate hearing earlier this year.
Unilever
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UK-based Unilever is one of the largest global consumer goods businesses. It bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 and also owns companies including Vaseline and Dove.
As part of the deal to buy Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever agreed to allow co-owners Greenfield and Ben Cohen continue to publicly advocate for human rights through the company.
Unilever recently announced its ice cream businesses, including Ben & Jerry’s and Cornetto, will become part of a separate business led by the brand Magnum.
In response, co-founder Ben Cohen posted on Instagram: “The Magnum Ice Cream Company will be made up of the same executives and investors who have eroded [our] voice. It is the same censorship, just packaged with a different name and logo.”
Resignation
Greenfield has now resigned, saying Ben & Jerry’s had “been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”
He said his resignation was “one of the hardest and most painful decisions [he has] ever made.”
“If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”
A Magnum spokesperson told The Guardian the company “disagreed with his perspective” and had tried to have a “constructive conversation”.
