Three Austin-area sustainable farms are providing healthy, all-natural meat to local restaurants — and changing our agricultural model while they’re at it.

It’s hard to shake a fork in this town these days without spearing locally raised meat. The tender oak-grilled rib eye at La Condesa, the garlicky Chicken Satay at Thai Fresh, even the rich carnitas tacos at the neighborhood Chipotle. Austin chefs have made a commitment to using local, sustainable and all-natural meat. “The closer it is to home,” says Andrew Francesco, the chef de cuisine at Olivia, “the better it’s going to taste. And it’s nice to have a relationship with the farmers.”

Three of those farms and ranches are Richardson Farms, Dewberry Hills Farms and Bastrop Cattle Company (BCC). Small providers like these are building relationships not only with chefs and customers but also with the land itself. As Pati Jacobs, the owner of BCC, says, “Local sustainable agriculture is reinventing the model. It’s been abandoned, and now we’re rediscovering it.” Farmers are scrapping the antibiotics and returning to their grandparents’ methods of raising animals, growing corn, grass and other plants without insecticides for feed and raising and slaughtering their animals naturally and humanely.

These folks are passionate about providing healthy and nutritious meat to restaurants like Jack Allen’s Kitchen, Parkside, Eastside Showroom and many more. It also means that before that chicken ended up as the Petto di Pollo Grigliato con Limone e Capperi at Vespaio, it lived a happy, fulfilling life on a Central Texas farm.

The Dedicated Farmers

Jim Richardson knows animals. After spending 39 years as a large-animal veterinarian, Richardson retired and started a farm with his wife, Kay. Located in Milam County on 200 acres, Richardson Farms is diversified, with 300 hogs, 1,500 broiler chickens, 1,000 turkeys, 700 laying hens, and 75 cattle, as well as land devoted to crops like wheat and corn, all raised naturally on pastures without antibiotics. “We care for our animals compassionately and want them to have the best life they can have.” Richardson says. But which are his favorites? “I like the hogs,” he says. “They are inquisitive, and they like to interact.”

Austin likes his hogs, too. His pork is sold at Fabi and Rosi, El Arbol and Barley Swine, among others. “Richardson pork is notorious for being sweet and fatty,” says Francesco. But as John Lash, the owner of Farm to Table, a Central Texas distributor, says, serving local meat is a commitment. “If a restaurant is using Jim’s pork, they’re paying twice as much as they would to use pork from somewhere else.” This is a challenge for all Texas ranchers, but it’s a particular problem for those raising pork. “There’s not a lot of pigs around on farms anymore in Texas,” says Richardson.

But the demand for pasture-raised pork is high, and as of July, local Chipotle restaurants started serving Richardson’s pork. His business may be successful, but he’s still mainly interested in the day-to-day farming. “I get out of my tractor and plant and harvest,” he says. “I’m in heaven.”

The Nature Lovers

If you order chicken at Cippolina, Trio, Uchiko or a number of other Austin restaurants, you’re eating from Dewberry Hills Farms. Jane and Terry Levan have been raising chickens since 1999, when they bought 20 acres of land in Lexington and began farming using a version of Joel Salatin’s rotational alternative livestock farming model.

Since then, the couple has become famous for the tender meat and crisp skins of their Cornish Cross chickens. “You can’t get anything like Dewberry Farms’ chicken in the grocery stores,” says Jacobs. The Levans, who deliver their chickens within 48 hours of processing, have also become known for sizing the chickens for restaurants. “Restaurants need consistency because of portion sizes, and that’s what Jane does well and that’s what makes her successful,” says Lash. With the pair slaughtering the birds on the property, they know their chickens well. “If I won’t eat it,” Jane says, “you won’t eat it.”

As part of their environmental commitment, the Levans have used mostly recycled materials to construct their farm. Their chickens move ground daily in chicken tents with tarps made from billboards. The roof trusses on their processing building were originally lumber from a shed. Even the kill cones are made from detergent bottles, and their dunker is a turkey fryer. But the Levans are conscientious of more than their footprint. “The average age of the chicken farmer is 55,” says Jane. “We’ve got to bring young people on board, and that’s why we’re creating a model that allows people with similar interests and budgets to model what we do.” For the moment, though, they’re happy to be doing something positive for the environment, the chickens and the community. “I wouldn’t have a job if chefs weren’t willing to feed people right,” Jane says.

The Visionary Businesswoman

When Pati Jacobs took over her family ranch with her brother in 2006, she knew she needed to make some changes. She stopped using chemical fertilizers and started grass-feeding her cattle, like ranchers did back in the 30s. She quickly realized that to stay on her land and make a living, she would need to work with other farms, and to sell direct. Jacobs has made a name for her Bastrop Cattle Company with her unique business model and her thoughtful plans for the Texas agriculture industry.

To achieve the volume needed to sell direct, Jacobs reaches out to family ranches. She also takes into account the ranchers’ cycles, processing the cows earlier rather than raising them to a full 30 months. The result is tender meat sold at cost-competitive prices to wholesalers and restaurants like East Side Pies, Wink and Whip In.

Beyond delivering grass-fed and healthy beef, Jacobs, like the Richardsons and the Levans, is working to change the agricultural model in Texas. “We’re headed back toward a regionalized food system,” she says. “Processing plants will be closer, and the animals will be treated better. The food will be more expensive but better for everyone.” Jacobs feels passionately that there are highpaying jobs in the new agricultural industry. “Agriculture is not a 19th-century industry. It’s a 21st-century industry,” she says. “I’m talking about framework. CPAs, marketing people, hydrology.”

Going forward, Jacobs says, “we need a culture that says agriculture is important and that you can make a good living at it.” The success of Bastrop Cattle Company, Dewberry Hills Farms and Richardson Farms is all evidence that that cultural shift is on its way. And restaurants are a big part of that new model. As Andrew Francesco, of Olivia, says, “I’m proud to serve local meat. It benefits everyone, and it keeps our community stronger.”