Issues With Taking Cash from Ben & Jerry's I spent an hour looking into the activities of Ben & Jerry's, and writing it up Unilever Connection:- Ben & Jerry's was bought for $326m by Unilever in 2000. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary http://www.foodservice.com/news_homepage_expandtitle_fromhome.cfm?passid=3226 Yves Couette is a Unilever employee, and was made CEO of Ben & Jerry's (despite opposition from staff and Ben & Jerry themselves) as part of the takover deal. Unilever is one of the worlds largest industrial conglomerates with "...annual sales of approximately $ 46 billion (£31,5bn). Unilever controls subsidiaries in at least 90 countries and employs 295,000 (in 2000) people [1]. Unilever is one of the world's top three food firms -after Nestle and Kraft- and the world's second largest packaged consumer goods company -behind Procter & Gamble." http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/food_supermarkets/unilever/unilever1.html Unilever was the first multinational company that started using genetically modified (GM) products (Batchelor's Beanfeast). Unilever sells Fair & Lovely skin lightening face cream "Fair & Lovely is being promoted as a 'fairness face cream' that will lighten your dark skin. Through their advertisements, Hindustan Lever spreads the message that a light skin is better than a dark skin. This type of advertisement promotes racism. It sends out the message that dark-skinned people are inferior." Unilever is the world's largest tea company, it controls 20% of the through its ownership of the Brands Lipton's and Brooke Bond. It produces no fairly traded tea. Unilever is also is the largest owner of (non-fairtrade) coffee plantations in Africa. Unilever was one of the companies which successfully lobbied the European Commission to begin legal proceedings at the World Trade Organisation to challenge US state Massachusetts' refusal to award public contracts to companies that do business with or in Burma (on grounds of Burma's appalling human rights record). http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/food_supermarkets/unilever/unilever5.html#neoliberal There are several boycotts of Unilever going on: http://www.pleasebekind.com/unileverpage.html http://www.geocities.com/eatnoshit/unilever.html http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/unilever.html The Unilever annual report, published 28 March 2002, showed that [CEO] Niall FitzGerald was paid £1.9m after a £955,000 performance-related bonus. This was in the same year as sales dropped by 60%. "In March 2001, residents of Kodaikanal, a pretty hill retreat in Southern India, caught the Anglo-Dutch multinational UNILEVER red-handed when they uncovered a dumpsite with toxic mercury-laced waste from a thermometer factory run by Unilever's Indian subsidiary Hindustan Lever" http://www.geocities.com/eatnoshit/unilever.html See also:- http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/unilever.html#WWW Unilever gave the Ben & Jerry Foundation $5 million as part of the takeover, and continue giving $1.1 million pa, for 10 years. The money they are proposing to give P&P is almost certainly coming from Unilever. http://www.benjerry.com/foundation/funding.html P&Ps Corporate FR Policy Says:- We will not accept money from any individual, organisation or business: -Whose aims, policies and actions conflict with our aims and objectives -With whom the association would mean having to compromise our opinions and values ... -Who is currently subject to a boycott or who is known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights Cynical marketing environmental dodgyness & greenwash:- "The idea is that organic, eco-active image of the brand will translate into a European market where organics are growing rapidly. To that end, Unilever has maintained the funky, privately-held image, barely mentioning the parent company on the company's home page. It's also continued contributions to socially conscious causes. But internally, decisions are being made as in any other division of a big company by people who think like Unilever. For example, layoffs are in the air as Unilever tries to reduce overall staffing. And payments to Vermont dairy farmers are less generous than they used to be. Gone too is the idea of making executive compensation have some ratio to assembly-line worker pay," quoted at http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/04/15.html Ben & Jerry's are in favour of deregulation of the electricity industry, which is likely to result in a higher release of greenhouse gasses, worse off workers, and essential utilities being controlled by large corporations. Ben & Jerry's are one of Vermont's largest users of carcinogenic atrazine, even in their supposedly 'organic' products : http://pweb.jps.net/~dcasner/SFSABenJerryPage.html They have been known to source ingredients for their Rainbow Crunch flavour from anti-labour cartels in South America, whilst portraying it as a product ethically sourced from indigenous people:- "In response to the supply crisis this ethical business turned to commercial nut markets supplied by some of the most notorious, anti-labour agri-businesses in Latin America. Over the years Ben and Jerry's has purchased more than 95 per cent of the nuts for Rainbow Crunch from these suppliers." http://www.ethicalmatters.co.uk/articles.asp?itemID=47&title=Trade P&Ps ethical FR Policy says we won't acccept cash from any organization: -Whose aims, policies and actions conflict with our aims and objectives -With whom the association would mean having to compromise our opinions and values .... -Who is currently subject to a boycott or who is known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights -Whom we suspect would be using the relationship for 'greenwash', rather than a genuine support of social and environmental responsibility The Nestle Connection:- "In June [2002], Nestle announced it would take a majority stake in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Inc., which distributes Ben & Jerry's. Nestle also owns Haagan-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's prime competitor. The Nestle deal is being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission." The company (Dreyer's) agreed to continue distributing Ben & Jerry's for 10 years to allow the take-over to go ahead. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3301/11_103/94405912/p1/article.jhtml http://www.maresearch.com/dryrsamp.htm#Updates The Nestle boycott is still going on. http://www.babymilkaction.org P&Ps ethical FR Policy says we won't acccept cash from any organization: - Who is currently subject to a boycott or who is known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights Animal Abuse:- "Cows, even cows from bucolic Vermont, are almost always slaughtered after four or five annual milking cycles. So to produce its ice cream, Ben and Jerry's requires the slaughter of about 12 cows every day. And over 23,000 cows are impregnated each year in order to produce the milk required to supply Ben and Jerry's. A substantial number of the resultant calves are put in veal crates and slaughtered before maturity." from http://www.salon.com/letters/1999/12/23/santa/index1.html . Also see:- http://www.vegan.com/issues/1999/dec99/SalonReferences.htm Veal Crates are, because of their excessive cruelty, banned in the UK. Methane emissions from cattle farming are a major contributor to global warming. "All of our ice creams and frozen yogurts contain either egg yolks or egg whites." http://benjerry.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/benjerry.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=9Z8wJy-&p_lva=&p_faqid=177&p_created=988835636&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MjI2JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li= P&Ps ethical FR policy says we won't acccept cash from organizations: "Who [are] currently subject to a boycott or who [are] known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights" Union Busting:- "These workers wanted time and a half for work on weekends and for any work that exceeded the standard eight-hour day... Asked how the company's anti-union campaign compared to those he's encountered from other, less "socially responsible" firms, Local 300's Tim Watkins, who coordinated the drive, called it "very aggressive." Some of the campaign followed a textbook union-busting formula" http://www.labournet.net/ukunion/0002/hippycap.html P&Ps ethical FR policy says we won't acccept cash from any organization: - "Who is currently subject to a boycott or who is known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights" Encouraging Unnecessary Consumption Of Unhealthy Food:- "Ben's tasty new organic treats may contain nine components that are essential to the financial survival of cardiologists and heart surgeons. Saturated fat. Cholesterol. Xanthene Oxidase. Galactose. Dioxins. Virus, pus, bacteria & parasites." http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/notmilk/message/1338 A study in August 2000 found, "levels of dioxin in a sampling of Ben & Jerry's brand ice cream are 2,200 times greater than the level of dioxin allowed in a 'serving' of wastewater discharged into San Francisco Bay by the Tosco refinery." - According to independent laboratory tests cited by Michael Gough, who chaired the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advisory panel on the effects of dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange on U.S. Air Force personnel in Vietnam http://www.organichealthandbeauty.com/rootcausedisease.html The ASA ruled that Unilever misled British consumers in the way the company presented the health benefits of its cholesterol-lowering margarine, Flora pro-activ. P&Ps ethical FR policy says we won't acccept cash from organizations: "Who [are] currently subject to a boycott or who [are] known to have a negative impact in relation to the environment, community, animal and human rights" Ironically, Unilever bought Slim-Fast on the same day as Ben and Jerry's - one to make people obese, and one to make them skinny again later.... The 'Free Ice Cream' Issue. "At freshers fairs, using our association with Ben and Jerry's and their profile to attract new members to groups by giving away free ice cream to anyone that joins groups." (from the proposal.) Ben & Jerry's use what is called in marketing jargon a societal marketing strategy, whereby an association with a particular cause, or causes is used to address a niche target market, often one not likely to be reached by other means. "The average shopper still thinks that by passing by the Breyer's and picking up a pint of Cherry Garcia is a act of social defiance." http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/04/15.html Ben & Jerry's will benefit enormously by their association with P&P, and our unique and effective brand of radical student activism, both in terms of 'eco-cudos' and direct promotional 'give-away' marketing. P&P, of course benefit from the funding. P&P may also benefit from people who just happen to like Ben & Jerry's ice cream signing up to our groups in order to get free ice-cream. However, the students in groups doing promotional work for unhealthy food produced by large multinationals will not even be getting paid the market rate for the work they are doing to associate the Ben & Jerry's brand with P&P's social and environmental activism. They will be making Ben & Jerry's look 'cool' for free like this: "Ben & Jerry's Stop & Taste the Ice Cream Tour gave away more than one million scoops at its Urban Pasture events, held during lunch time in high-traffic business districts, and via "work stoppage" guerrilla sampling maneuvers at office buildings." http://www.promomagazine.com/ar/marketing_branded_moments Although there has been included in the proposal the proviso that groups will only give away ice-cream where it is thought by them to be an effective 'ploy' for getting people interested in P&Ps work, it seems unlikely that a sustainable funding relationship could continue exist if no ice cream were to be given away, so we are expecting our student network to do at least some marketing for one of Unilever's subsidiaries. P&Ps ethical FR policy says we won't acccept cash from organizations: - From whom accepting money would be seen as an 'endorsement' by People & Planet - Who [are] set to gain more, financially or otherwise from the association, than People & Planet If P&P go ahead with the funding proposal, I hope P&P will be upfront about Unilever's atrocious record of environmental and human rights abuses, as well as the questions raised here about Ben and Jerry's, and their association with Nestle, in order that groups make an informed decision about becoming involved in the company's marketing work.