Socially Responsible Causes Ben & Jerry's Has Advocated for

Ben founded 1% For Peace in 1988, which set a goal to redirect one percent of the national defense budget to fund peace-promoting activities and projects. The company launched the Peace Pop that spun off proceeds to 1% for Peace.

Ben & Jerry’s comes out against Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), based on concern about its adverse economic impact on family farming and public confidence in the wholesomeness of dairy products.

Eight million Ben & Jerry’s pints carry a “Support Farm Aid” message as part of the grassroots efforts of Farm Aid, a non-profit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land.

Ben & Jerry’s joins in a cooperative campaign with the national non profit, Children’s Defense Fund; the campaign goal is to bring children’s basic needs to the top of the national agenda. Over 70,000 postcards are sent to Congress concerning kids and other national issues.

In an effort to drive voter turnout among young people, Ben & Jerry’s partners with Rock the Vote. RTV street teams leverage the long lines of customers on Free Cone Day to register over 11,000 voters – the biggest one-day grassroots registration in Rock the Vote’s history.

To protest proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we construct a 900-pound Baked Alaska with our Fossil Fuel ice cream, shoulder it onto the US Capital lawn and serve it up with the help of Greenpeace and the Alaska Wilderness League.

When we began offsetting the carbon emissions from our employees’ travel, we thought the idea was so cool we couldn’t keep it to ourselves. Working with our friends at MyClimate and NativeEnergy, we help people across the country and around the world to purchase offsets for their airplane travel. 

When the U.S. Food & Drug Administration declared that it believed meat and milk from cloned animals was safe to eat, we were beside ourselves, twice over! To show our disappointment with the FDA’s decision – and to urge Americans to speak out against cloning – we send a determined herd of cow-costumed folks to Washington, D.C. for a “Truth or Clone-sequences” demonstration.

When protestors in New York City and other places take to the streets under the Occupy Wall Street banner in the fall of 2011 to rally against increasing economic inequality in the United States, high unemployment, mortgage fraud, and too much corporate influence in American politics, Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors issues a direct statement of solidarity, and we show up in Zucotti Park on several occasions to scoop ice cream for Occupiers.

As the campaign to label food products made with GMO ingredients moves across the states, including Vermont, Ben & Jerry’s is proud to stand with the growing consumer movement for transparency and the right to know what’s in our food supply by supporting mandatory GMO labeling legislation. In 2013, we also commit to transitioning all of our ingredients to be fully sourced non-GMO.