Left-Wing Food?

By Dr. Mercola

I recently wrote about the greenwashing of organic milk, and how organic dairies, such as Aurora Organic, are nothing but concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in disguise that are unfairly putting true organic dairy farmers out of business with low quality milk. Few companies are as bad as Ben & Jerry’s, however, when it comes to greenwashing and failing to live up to stated mission goals.

Ben & Jerry’s vision statement includes social, product quality, environmental and economic missions¹ that aim “to create linked prosperity for everyone that’s connected to our business:”²

Social Mission: To operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally.
Product Mission: To make, distribute and sell the finest quality ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the environment.
Economic Mission: To operate the company on a sustainable financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our stakeholders and expanding opportunities for development and career growth for our employees.

Over the last two decades, Ben & Jerry’s has been directly confronted about their failure to live up to mission, as they continue promoting themselves as a ‘green’ business while utilizing extremely harmful and polluting agriculture methods.

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Ben & Jerry’s — One of the Greatest Greenwash Scams in the Business

Chances are, if you like ice cream, you probably like Ben & Jerry’s — not just because of their “euphoric concoctions” but also because of their emphasis on sustainability and ecofriendly practices, and their support for labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Too bad it’s all a façade.

The company recently got a slew of negative press^3,^4,^5,⁶ when independent testing by the Organic Consumer’s Association (OCA) discovered traces of glyphosate in 10 out of 11 Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and a minor issue in the big scheme of things. As noted by Michael Colby, former editor of Food & Water Journal and co-founder of Regeneration Vermont, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to bringing sustainable, regenerative agriculture back to Vermont:⁷

“It was 20 years ago last month that Food & Water published our report on Vermont’s atrazine addiction, a toxic herbicide that is banned in Europe but continues to be used in abundance on Vermont’s 92,000 acres of GMO-derived feed corn — all for dairy cows. We used the report to get the attention of Ben & Jerry’s, and it worked.

We thought when the doors swung open to the offices of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield themselves that we’d be able to make the case to them. Our plea at the time was the same as it is today: Ben & Jerry’s should practice what it preaches and help transition its farmers to organic production. If they took the lead, we argued, the entire state could begin a transition away from the kind of industrial, commodity-based dairy system that is wreaking so much havoc with Vermont’s agriculture …

We thought the obvious imbalance — and even direct, outright hypocrisy — between what Ben & Jerry’s was doing and what they were saying would be enough to get these do-good hippies to do the right thing. We were using logic. Because, certainly, the corporation that wanted to “save the planet” and “put the planet before profits” would want to stop being one of the state’s top polluters, right?

Wrong. We were told at the time, by Ben himself, after a year’s worth of meetings and even an offer of a job to me ‘to work with us instead of going after us,’ that Ben & Jerry’s was not going to transition to organic because it wouldn’t allow them to ‘maximize profits.’”

Happy, Healthy Cows? Not So Much

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I have visited Allen’s Cedar Circle Farm in Vermont, where I had the opportunity to talk to Ronnie Cummins, co-founder of OCA. Many of the issues covered above are discussed in the article published in 2014. A key message Cummins and Allen deliver is the importance of avoiding all CAFO animal products, be it beef, poultry, eggs, milk or other dairy products such as ice cream.

CAFOs simply have too many devastating drawbacks, not just in terms of inferior food products, but also in terms of animal welfare and environmental impacts delivered by GMOs that are dependent on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that end up in the soil, air and water – and eventually into the ice cream and other products we consume.

One of the most impactful changes you as an individual can make is to switch from CAFO animal products to organic, grass fed beef and dairy that doesn’t rely on such destructive practices. Many do not realize this, but grazing animals are actually a very important part of the ecology. Nearly 97% of the native grasslands have been destroyed, much of it planted into GMO corn & soy fields which in turn are fed to herbivores that could be grazing instead of eating grains fed to them on concrete.

Organic Grass Fed Agriculture Can Solve Many Environmental Problems

Our modern agricultural system, which focuses on monocropping and CAFOs as two separate food streams that degrades the farmland by reducing organic matter in soil. Scientists have also declared farming and fertilizers as the No. 1 cause of particulate matter air pollution in much of the U.S., China, Russia and Europe today, specifically the nitrogen component of fertilizers.^18,¹⁹

According to Allan Savory, an African ecologist, dramatically increasing the number of grazing livestock is really the only thing that can successfully reverse both desertification.^20,²¹ An article²² by Pure Advantage notes how there is no current or envisioned technology that can simultaneously restore biodiversity and feed people. But livestock can …

Increasing organic matter in soil and pastures also saves all-important water in more ways than one. First, it retains more rain water, thereby reducing irrigation needs; second, it encourages rainfall and prevents extended droughts. In fact, satellite data reveals plant-soil evapotranspiration may exert a far greater influence on weather and rainfall patterns than previously thought.²³

The more organic matter there is in the soil, the more moisture is captured and released back into the atmosphere through plant transpiration. For each 1 percent increase in organic matter, each acre of soil can retain another 20,000 gallons of water. Raising organic soil matter by 1 percent in Oklahoma alone would allow the soil there to retain an additional 894 billion gallons more water after each rainfall of 1 inch or more!²⁴

You Have the Power to Make a Difference

For two decades, Ben & Jerry’s has successfully pulled the wool over the public’s eyes. The the toxic truth about their GMO dependent CAFOs are now revealed, the company has become a posterchild for greenwashing of the worst sort. Their social mission is to “operate … in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society,” and initiate “innovative ways to improve the quality of life.”

Their mission goal has been neglected for 20 years and remains unfulfilled to this day. To fulfill it, they need to transition to regenerative dairy production. Doing so would have a tremendously positive impact on society. CAFOs have no redeeming value aside from corporate profitability. It’s not even profitable for the farmers.

Ben & Jerry’s product mission is to make “the finest quality ice cream … with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the environment.” Sourcing milk from CAFOs violates and nullifies this entire mission goal from start to finish.

You cannot make the finest quality ice cream when you start with toxic inferior raw materials (CAFO milk); you certainly are not committing to incorporating wholesome natural ingredients when you willfully choose CAFO over organic grass fed milk; and you certainly are not promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the environment when insisting on supporting grossly polluting factory farms rather than regenerative farming.

The only mission goal Ben & Jerry’s has ever been able to fully live up to is its economic goal, which is to make “profitable growth” and “increasing value for stakeholders.” Congratulations. Too bad that’s not what health conscious consumers really care about.

I hope you join me in calling Ben & Jerry’s bluff. Let them know you expect them to live up to the promises on which they’ve built their little empire. It’s time to actually deliver the real goods. You can contact Ben & Jerry’s directly by calling (802-846-1500). I strongly encourage you to call them and tell them what you think of their reprehensible, unethical and irresponsible behavior. Phone lines are open Monday through Friday, 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. You can also send them a message using the online contact form at the bottom of their contact page. You CAN make a radical difference. Please give them a call, and ask your family and friends to contact them as well.

Sources and References

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Left-Wing Food?

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