With temperatures soaring to record levels, Ben & Jerry’s, the socially conscious ice cream company, has picked its moment to launch the UK’s first Fairtrade ice cream.
From next month, shoppers at Sainsbury’s and selected Co-op supermarkets will be able to buy the company’s Fairtrade vanilla ice cream, using vanilla from southern India and sugar from Paraguay.
The company says its classic vanilla flavour, which will also go on sale in Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, will be the first Fairtrade ice cream in Europe. The Fairtrade campaign is the latest sign that Ben & Jerry’s, owned by Unilever, is returning to the principles of social activism embraced by its founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who gave up the day-to-day running of the company 10 years ago.”It’s important for us to be consistent with our values and take the initiative on issues like this,” said Mr Greenfield, who is in London to promote the Fairtrade move.
Ben & Jerry’s was taken over by the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever in 2000 for $326m (£174.9m), a forerunner of deals such as L’Oreal’s takeover of the Body Shop in May and McDonald’s purchase of a 33% stake in Pret a Manger. Mr Greenfield tactfully describes the first three years of the company’s ownership by Unilever as a “period of adjustment for both of us”. Reports say the two kept their distance from the company they founded.
But Mr Greenfield says Ben & Jerry’s has been re-energised under its new chief executive, Walt Freese, who joined a year and a half ago and persuaded them to return to the campaign trail.Earlier this month, Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield were back on the streets giving out free ice cream as the company pushed its American Pie flavour. The lid on the ice cream features a pie chart showing the breakdown of America’s budget. The chart shows half of the amount of discretionary spending going towards the US military. The weblink accompanying the American Pie flavour says: “According to the experts, as much as $13bn could be cut from US nuclear spending each year without compromising our national security or our standing as the world’s strongest nuclear power.
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