Sold up but not sold out, Ben and Jerry are still the poster boys for fair trade & more!

I posted yesterday on how Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Company, run now by Unilever, Board of Directors have backed OWS. I had a lot of people complaining that B&J's had sold out to Unilver and they just weren't the same now. Well I just found this article from 2010 and I thought I would post it so those dissenters can see they are still "just about" the same company they were when Ben & Jerry sold it to them:

Sold up but not sold out,
Ben and Jerry are still the poster boys for fair trade
Vermont's finest double discuss American pie, greenwash and giving Unilever some sticky moments
David Teather The Observer, Saturday 3 April 2010
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/04/ben-jerrys-fairtrade-ethical-business

....And you know Ben and Jerry's does happen to be very high profile but when Unilever holds up Ben & Jerry's as 'our example of how socially responsible we are', you know, we should understand that Unilever is what? – a $40bn-$50bn business and we're a little piece of that." So it is greenwash? "Yeah, yeah."

Even so, Cohen says he is more convinced than ever that business can be a force for good. "If there is any hope for our countries and society in general, it is through business. Business has risen to this level of the most powerful force in society. I mean it used to be that the most powerful forces in society were religion and then nation states and the purpose of those two entities was to support the common good, and maybe they didn't do everything exactly right, but now those two are subservient to business."

Greenfield says that trust in corporations "is pretty darn low" at the moment, but suggests that is a good thing. "Well, along with trust in the government," adds Cohen. "And you do know the entity that people most trust in the US?" The church? "The Pentagon," he says, with another big laugh.

Greenfield spends much of his time on the company's charitable foundation; Cohen on his mission to shift money out of the Pentagon (he is currently making a documentary on this). Cohen almost expresses surprise that Ben & Jerry's has managed to maintain its progressive identity. "The company took a major stand on the issue of gay marriage. It renamed its Chubby Hubby flavour to Hubby Hubby and people loved it. Sure, some people hated it. But our consumers loved it. And it is interesting that Unilever itself is very gay friendly."

...The conversation drifts to politics. Cohen is disappointed with President Barack Obama. "Obama was dealt an incredibly bad hand. But the continued absurdity of thinking you can defeat terrorism by having a global war without end and bombing and killing populations continues to be misguided," Greenfield says.

(Much more at link - Great read!)

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Thank you to Ben & Jerry and yes to Unilever for keeping this company as a model for us to look up too!

:toast: