Ben & Jerry’s support of the law—a swirl of savvy public relations, financial backing, and grass-roots activism—pits the ice cream maker against the world’s biggest food companies, including its own corporate parent. Unilever has openly opposed state efforts to legislate GMO labeling, throwing money into campaigns to defeat an initiative in California. But it has quietly allowed Ben & Jerry’s to assert itself as a vocal proponent of such laws, especially in Vermont. “I don’t think they will ever want the potentially massive negative PR of trying to silence B&J,” says Andrew Wood, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.If Unilever tries to play both sides of the issue, it may wind up hurting itself and Ben & Jerry’s. “In the short run, they might get away with ignoring what B&J is doing, but sooner or later it will catch up with them,” says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and public health at New York University and the author of Food Politics, a book about how the food industry influences nutrition policy. Unilever’s stance makes it “look stupid,” Nestle says, and it could open up the company to boycotts from consumer activists angry about its hypocrisy. “I suspect we will be hearing much more about this.”