Farm project

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade is located in Vermont, a northeastern state of the United States whose local economy relies heavily on dairy products. The company believes that Vermont’s small family farms are threatened by a new drug, bovine growth hormone, or BGH. When injected into dairy cattle, BGH can increase milk production significantly. According to Ben & Jerry’s, the only beneficiaries of the commercial use of BGH will be the four large chemical companies who have developed the drug.

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade points out that the drug poses important economic and safety problems. If approved by the government, BGH will increase milk production, drive down milk prices and soon force the small family farmer out of business. As a result, community life in Vermont and other rural areas will be disrupted and the land will fall into the hands of un­sympathetic owners. Moreover, too little is known about the effects of BGH on humans. As concern for the wholesomeness¹ of the food supply rises, BGH will create confusion about dairy products, further erod­ing the state’s economy and well-being.

To fight the approval of BGH, Ben & Jerry’s is educating the public. It urges people to read about the issue and to write to their elected officials. At the same time, the company makes sure that its own prod­ucts are free from² BGH. Ben & Jerry’s supports Vermont farms by purchasing all of its milk and cream from a cooperative owned and operated by 500 local fam­ily farmers. Ben & Jerry’s believes that these farmers are important to the heritage and quality of life in Vermont and throughout the United States.

1. healthfulness

2. do not have

Article #2

Rain forest project

Ben & Jerry’s is very involved in projects to protect the en­vironment. Company executives believe that business can make a profit without destroying the earth.

If the profit motive¹ has helped destroy the Amazonian rain forests, can it be used to save them? Estimates say that Brazil’s ranchers, loggers, and farmers have already eradicated² as much as 12 percent of the world’s largest rain forest. Now envi­ronmentalists are counting on capitalism to lure a new breed³ of treasure hunter. Rather than destroying the land for riches,... entrepreneurs are seeking na­tive herbs for cosmetics, exotic fish for food... and untold other products that won’t harm the land. “We want to show that a living rain forest makes more money than a dead rain forest,” says Jason Clay, research director of the Harvard University-affiliated organization Cultural Survival.

Businessmen are wasting no time cashing in.⁴ Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream recently introduced a flavor featuring Brazil nuts and cashews called Rainforest Crunch…. The company will donate a portion of the profits to rain forest conservation efforts. Clay argues that nut farm­ing not only conserves the forest but is five times as profitable per acre as cattle ranching – and nut farmers do not have to spend money putting up fences, clearing land or hiring cowboys.

1. desire to gain money

2. completely destroyed

3. attract a new kind

4. making money

Article #3