All We Wanted Was A Conversation
Four years ago, Erin and I wrote a welcome letter to Elon Musk. His Tesla factory was going up just a few miles from our east Austin farm. We wanted to introduce ourselves as a convenient source for local organic food for his employees. Like Tito’s Vodka and other Austin companies, we thought providing local food would be an important employee benefit.
We addressed the letter to the Musk Foundation, which had recently moved to Austin. We weren’t so naive as to think Musk would respond, but perhaps someone in his organization would be interested in making connections with an east Austin business that shares the same passion for good food as Musk's dietician mother or his brother, Kimball, a food entrepreneur who had recently brought his non-profit Big Green to Austin. No response.
A year later when two of his Big Green employees joined a meeting of food and farm professionals at our farm, our hopes revived for making inroads. No such luck. Hemingway knew the score when he told Fitzgerald ”the rich are different you and me,” and not just because they are richer.
Two months ago, a Texas Monthly reporter called to say he had seen my photo in the Washington Post, where he used to work. He wanted to see how Musk’s neighbors were fairing a year later. Coincidently, our son, an aerospace engineering senior at UT, had just come back from an interview at SpaceX — not at the Bastrop facility just a mile down the road, but in Boca Chica — another Texas hot spot where the Chamber of Commerce is playing catch-up with the new “move fast, break things” business model.
An important take away from his visit was discovering that the turnover rate at Boca is so high that odds are good he’d be looking for a new job before long. Though SpaceX is currently leading in his industry, that success has come at a cost — for the talented people who work there as well as for the people who live nearby.
Erin and I never imagined when we expanded our farming business to Bastrop that we would spend so much time fighting to save the essential ingredients needed to farm. Clean air, water and soil. Safe roads. (All the more surprising given its designation as one of the most important ecological and cultural areas in the state.) We simply wanted to grow organic food and flowers and to help establish a dedicated agricultural area where farmers could be nurtured and trained; where neighbors could continue to enjoy the outstanding natural beauty of this rare bend in the Colorado river.
Our goal was never to monitor the irresponsible behavior of our new industrial neighbors, file complaints, rally for basic public safety and informational meetings. What we have been seeking used to be common practice — face-to-face meetings — and common courtesy. Back when county neighborhoods and local businesses had some say in their community, when there was accountability. We applaud innovation and support responsible development. What we are adamantly opposed to are reckless, cowardly companies that hide under a cloak of “progress” as they harm us and future generations.
I came to Central Texas nearly 20 years ago with visions of green fields. Erin returned home to reconnect with her Texas farming roots, which stretch back six generations. We’ve managed to achieve our dream of being full-time farmers for longer than most, while meeting the growing challenges of skeptics, climate change, unfettered growth, and polarized politics.
While we would much rather focus solely on farming, we will continue to seek solutions to the rapid loss of prime farmland and clean water. Not only for us, but for you and your children. If nothing else, we hope this article by accomplished reporter Peter Holley inspires conversations and actions that result in the creation of a vibrant foodshed already enjoyed by other dynamic cities (Nashville, TN, Burlington, VT,…) but not yet by Austin or Bastrop.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/elon-musk-vs-organic-farmers-bastrop/?utm_source=texasmonthly.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=sharebutton
