Interview with Ben Cohen Conducted by Michael Shank July 11, 2006
As part of the American Pie Tour, Ben Cohen who is the cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream was in Washington DC to raise awareness about how American tax dollars are sliced up. During his stay in Washington, Ben generously took a moment to speak with Michael Shank. This interview was conducted within Ben Cohen’s personal capacity and is not associated with the company.
Can you tell me about the idea behind the American Pie Tour? What’s the objective?
It’s pretty much to make people aware of how the federal discretionary budget is sliced up. And so it’s based on the pie chart of the discretionary budget and more specifically looking at how much we spend on nuclear weapons.
We currently spend about $20 billion a year on nuclear weapons. That’s the equivalent of a 150,000 Hiroshima explosions. We’re saying—along with most retired high-level military officers—that we only need a few hundred. That would save $13 billion a year. That would pay for rebuilding all of our schools for our kids or providing healthcare for every kid who doesn’t have it…
What you’re doing for the community here is unique. You only have 14 franchises like it. What do you do specifically for this community?
This franchise is owned by the Latin American Youth Center. So the profits that they make go back to supporting that Center. And they’re able to use the shop as a place to do job training for the kids that work here.
What’s your hope when people come to get ice cream from you? What do you hope they leave with?
Some information about how their money is sliced up and the desire to change it.
What can other companies do to be more socially responsible and environmentally responsible?
I think something that’s really easy is supporting over 70% of the population who wants to reduce our spending on nuclear weapons. If we could get the business community to take this stand, I think we could actually make some headway on the issue.
There’s this knee-jerk reaction that companies can’t take public political stands but that hasn’t been our experience. And what we find is that consumers are really drawn to companies that take political stands that they agree with. And it so happens that the huge majority of the population wants to get rid of nuclear weapons.
Thank you for being exemplary role models, business role models, for the community.