Shopping Bag Summary
Your bag is empty
Sub-total: $0.00
Weight: 0.0kg
Freight: Not calcuated
Courier: $0.00
Post: $0.00
Track Order
Sub-total: $0.00
Weight: 0.0kg
Freight: Not calcuated
Courier: $0.00
Post: $0.00
The Bentley Blockade: Fighting for the future
Hi,
For those of you that haven’t met me my name is Michael Lyon and I
have the great privilege of being the General Manager for Santos Organics.
My role involves coordinating passionate staff to offer the highest quality
organic products available in Australia. Managing a social enterprise means
my role also involves distributing Santos Organics’ profits to
community organisations and campaigns that align with our core values of
ecological sustainability and local food security.
You may have noticed posts about ‘Bentley’ popping up on our social media. So what’s the big deal about ‘Bentley’? And what does it have to do with a retailer like Santos Organics?
Bentley is a farming region near Lismore, Northern NSW (about one hour’s drive from Santos Organics). Presently, there are at any one time between 400 and 3000 people blockading the entrance to a farm that Metgasco, a Sydney based mining company, intends to mine for its tight sands gas deposit.
The Northern Rivers community in general is overwhelmingly opposed to gasfield industrialisation, with some areas voting unanimously in surveys to remain gasfield-free. In Bentley, 84.5% of the locals voted to have their lands and roads gasfield-free. This opposition is largely due to environmental and personal health risks associated with ‘fracking’, a controversial mining method required to release the gas from the tight sands deposit.
The entire Santos Organics team is passionate about ensuring inappropriate mining does not irreversibly spoil our farmland and water tables. As such, Santos Organics is donating wholesome organic food weekly to the protectors out at the Bentley Blockade. Including donations by individual staff members we have collectively donated an estimated $600 worth of food so far with more to come. Our customers have also donated cash and food ( I am holding an in-store collection box in the picture ) which we deliver directly to the blockade campsite. So thank you, for supporting us so that we are able to support the people and organisations that make clean food possible!
I encourage you to find out more about this campaign at http://gasfieldfreenorthernrivers.org/rosella/. Facebook pages such as ‘Gasfield Free Northern Rivers’ and ‘Lock the Gate’ provide regular updates on unconventional gas mining in the Northern Rivers and elsewhere in Australia.
Are you wishing to donate to help stop unconventional gas mining at Bentley? If yes, please do so here: http://csgfreenorthernrivers.org/donate-now/
In health and activism,
Michael Lyon
Santos Organics General Manager
