black and white image of a hand holding an ice cream cone

These ‘Health’ Food Stores Sell Ben & Jerry’s ‘Roundup Ready’ Ice Cream

November 30, 2017 | Organic Consumers Association

Your local natural health food store could never get away with stocking its shelves with Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Toxins that cause cancer and birth defects don’t belong in “health” food stores.

So how do some of these stores get away with stocking Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, when our testing revealed that ten of 11 flavors contain glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup?

This week, we called 290 of the best natural health food stores and co-ops nationwide to find out which ones sell Ben & Jerry’s.

We’re relieved to report that most—198—don’t. But unfortunately, 92 (31 percent) do. Here’s the list of natural health food stores and co-ops that sell glyphosate-contaminated Ben & Jerry’s. If your store is on this list please take this letter to the store manager and ask him or her to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s. After your visit, fill out this form to let us know what happened.

Most of the stores that sell Ben & Jerry’s  display it right next to the organic brands they sell—a move that misleads consumers into thinking Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is organic, too.

And get this—by ounce, Ben & Jerry’s costs more than the leading organic brands!

Glyphosate contamination is just one reason not to buy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Concern about water pollution and animal welfare are two others.

Those pretty pictures on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream containers are intended to make you think the cows producing the cream for your ice cream are happily grazing on green pastures. But a visit to a real Ben & Jerry dairy in Franklin County, Vt., paints a very different picture—one of filthy waters and cows confined to a life on cement floors. 

Franklin County is home to more than 36,000 cows that spend about five years pumping out milk for Ben & Jerry’s before they’re slaughtered for meat. Their waste flows into Lake Carmi. Once known as the Silver Lake recreation area, it had to be closed for three months this year because of toxic algae blooms caused by dairy farm run-off. 

If the 92 natural health food stores that sell Ben & Jerry’s knew the real story, would they still carry Ben & Jerry’s weedkiller-contaminated ice cream? 

Regeneration Vermont’s most recent report, “A Failure to Regulate, Big Dairy and Water Pollution in Vermont,” calls on Ben & Jerry’s to solve the crisis by transitioning to regenerative organic agriculture, beginning with bringing their dairies in line with their fake marketing.

We’ve already won significant concessions from Ben & Jerry’s. But we need to keep the pressure on!

Find out if the store near you sells Ben & Jerry’s 

Download this letter to store managers 

After your store visit, please fill out this questionnaire 

Make a tax-deductible donation to support our ‘Ben & Jerry’s: Go Organic!’ campaign