Ice cream icon in Bend, politics on menu

When you think of the most prolific political activists to hit the High Desert, the latter half of the Ben & Jerry ice cream duo probably doesn’t come to mind. But co-founder Jerry Greenfield came to Bend on Friday to serve some free ice cream and cold, hard truth.

“It’s a very simple thing,” said Greenfield, during a ‘Yes on Measure 92’ rally at the Ben & Jerry’s at the Old Mill District in Bend. The measure would force food companies to label products with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs (with some exceptions that critics have taken to task)..

“It’s about a consumer’s right to know,” Greenfield said. “We believe that any food company should be proud to display the ingredients they have in their products. I mean, you should be screaming it from the rooftops!”

Screaming for ice cream is old hat, but screaming for the labeling of food products with genetically modified organisms doesn’t make for your typical Friday afternoon.

But for a company based in Vermont, where GMO labeling is already law, it’s a message worth making noise over.

“Let consumers make the choice of what they want to buy. They just need to have the information,” Greenfield said.

While the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot doesn’t force food companies to remove GMOs from their products, it’s a move currently being made by the ice cream giant. As of now, 80 percent of Ben & Jerry’s products are GMO-free, and the goal is to move to 100 percent by next year.

And while it’s not on the menu now, Greenfield may talk with his equally famous co-founder about adding another flavor in support of the cause.

“Well, we have shirts that say ‘Labelize It,’ so I think maybe that could make a great flavor as well,” Greenfield said. “It’s a cool name, cool color, I think it could really work.”