Lifestyle

Sustainable in the City: Ten Acre Organics in Austin

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Self-suficiency and self-sustainability promotes getting back to the basics, growing your own food, supplying your own energy, and cutting back on costs. Cities around the nation are jumping on this band wagon to the point where it isn’t unusual to drive past a community garden, a house with solar panels and rain barrels, or even seeing chickens in the backyard of a subdivision. Self-sustainability is exactly what drove Michael Hanan and Lloyd Minick to start their own little urban homestead, Ten Acre Organics, in 2012. It is a small urban farm on only a tenth of an acre of land located in East Austin and is a poster child for sustainability. They grow fruits and vegetables, raise chickens, and support their farm with the use of greenhouse aquaponics stocked with Tilapia. Their model uses 90% less water and requires 90% less space than a typical farm. It also requires less labor and fewer non-renewable resources than traditional agriculture. It’s pretty amazing!

Ten Acre Organics is living proof a homestead can be started on virtually any size plot, and it benefits more than just their household. As they began producing more, they have been giving more. Neighbors began benefiting from the fruits of their labor, and eventually, so has the city. However, Michael and Lloyd aren’t stopping there. They want the whole world to benefit from their experience. So, they are currently working to take their “prototype” and expand it to a full-scale farm model. This will go to show the world that this model in homesteading can be done both on a small and a large scale while keeping the resources used to a minimum. This would be a great set-up to donate to third world countries on missions expeditions as a way to support whole communities! Check out how Michael Hanan and Lloyd Minick of Ten Acre Organics built their amazing urban homestead.