Ben Cohen (businessman)

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Ben Cohen (b. March 18, 1951, Merrick, New York), son of Frances and Irving Cohen, is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, along with Jerry Greenfield. Ben and Jerry met in 1963 in gym class and became close friends in high school.

In 1978 Ben Cohen opened Ben and Jerry's Homemade ice cream scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont with Greenfield. They almost opened a bagel shop, but due to the high cost of the equipment that was needed, they chose ice cream instead.

He now runs TrueMajority and Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities.

Cohen is vocal in his support of Democratic candidates. He supported Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 Democratic primaries and endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.

As mentioned in the documentary film Super Size Me, Ben underwent a quintuple bypass in 2001 to clear blocked arteries. Cohen was 49 years old at the time.

He has many contributions to society, such as creating the Ben & Jerry's foundation. It has donated 7.5% of their before tax profits to organizations such as the Anti Displacement Project Inc. He has also encouraged small scale farming, and doesn't accept milk with rBGH implants, or any other types of implants them. He has also encouraged the spending of more money on children's rights, and less on nuclear weapons.