Ad Fontes Farms

Good food begins with good dirt. But good dirt isn't a goal in most farming enterprises. At best, the relationship between dirt and food is severed in modern agriculture; at worst, it's an adversarial relationship. In place of good dirt, industrial agriculture creates artificial fertility by applying tons of chemical fertilizers to depleted soil. Instead of taking advantage of the natural byproduct of animals, spreading it around to replace what's been lost from the soil, factory farms collect manure in one place, making it toxic and missing the potential it has to replenish the soil. Instead of letting animals graze on good grass and forage, sterilized by sunshine and time, industrial agriculture gathers animals into close confinement and brings feed to animals that they were never intended to eat. Good life begins with good food. You are what you eat is more than just your great-grandmother's way of telling you not to eat too much junk (which, as far as advice goes, was solid gold). Healthy dirt grows healthy plants. Healthy plants feed healthy animals. Healthy animals nourish healthy people. When that cycle is interrupted, when chickens don't get to do what chickens were designed to do, when pigs don't get to express their pigness, in the end, both dirt and people suffer. Ad Fontes is a Latin expression that means "to the sources." It's a phrase used in various contexts. In the Reformation, it was a call back to the Scriptures. In education, it's an ex