Posted 141 days ago

A Wild Imagination

Scott Deerwester & Andy Wade

We are facing an enormous challenge in the coming decade. The growing degradation of soil and water requires all of us to imagine new ways to grow our food that is more sustainable and to steward God’s creation more responsibly. The Wildcat Center is one example of a small group of Christians who have begun that journey.

The Wildcat Center, located in rural Carroll County, Indiana, sprouted in the imagination of Scott Deerwester after years of living in Asia, serving those living in extreme poverty there and in Africa, and later returning to rural Indiana in 2007. Scott reflects, “We had questions, lots of questions. Questions like, ‘What does the Kingdom of God look like with boots on?’” Theological foundations are essential: so is putting on boots and walking it out through creative application.

“‘Alternative‘” is a big word around the center” Scott says, “We’re all about ‘alternative crops, energy, computing, and economy’. The Center exists because we believe there is a better way to a lot of what we see around us, and we’re committed to exploring it, living it, and passing it on. We’re interested in new, imaginative ways of doing things for a variety of reasons.”

One reason is that what’s already out there isn’t working very well. Lots of people are hungry, poor and in debt, and unempowered to take their place in healthy, wholesome communities. We think that it’s very possible to do something about that.

Another reason is that the world has become a pretty scary place that shows every sign of getting even scarier. If even a small number of the crises that we read about every day – economic collapse, environmental disaster, global pandemics, climate change – actually hit, the way people meet their needs and live their lives today doesn’t do much to prepare for the sort of world that we’re moving into in the coming decade. We think that it’s possible to do a lot better.

Finally, we’ve looked at the lives and fruit of people who think, build and play in these areas. There are a lot of effective and creative responses happening and we’re not content to see their accomplishments sit in a corner, without broader impact on the lives of people who most need it. We believe in “getting real” about offering alternatives.

Here are some examples of what we’re doing at The Wildcat Center that, although sometimes simple steps, directly address the issues of food justice, sustainability, and security.

Our greenhouse, planned for this summer, extends the old-fashioned “hot bed”. Built four feet below ground level, with a trench eight feet deep along the south edge, the passive solar earth sheltered greenhouse should give us a nine month growing season and a twelve month harvest. This is important because our world’s current method of mass-producing food and shipping it long distances is expensive, environmentally unfriendly, and often built on the backs of underpaid and even slave labor. Even if you don’t have room for such a greenhouse, the ideas we’re experimenting with will hopefully provide creative, “boots on” lessons for local growers you can support who are also utilizing just and sustainable practices.

1. Can you think of any “old-fashioned” methods that can be adapted and/or updated to provide better sources of food security and/or sustainable methods for producing both just and healthy crops for you and your community?

In the Philippines, the most common fertilizer is chicken manure. Driving down the road, you’ll see the occasional truck full of the stuff, smelling, for all the world, like a load of burnt chocolate. Our plan for this year is to buy tons of chicken manure from a local egg farm instead of commercial fertilizer. Even with the trucking, the cost is much less than standard alternatives, and the results are much more gentle on the land.

2. What are some alternative sources of fertilizer you might tap into instead of using chemicals that damage the long-term productivity of the soil?

Awakening one day to the sound of chainsaws, I hurried out of the house to find the source of the sound. On the far corner of the property, a bright yellow truck was parked, with a crew cutting limbs away from power lines. The back of the truck housed an enormous wood chipper, where the crew would turn tons of trimmed branches into tons of wood chips. As we heat with wood, I asked if they ever had firewood to give away. Their counterproposal took me back a few steps. They asked how many tons of wood chips I could use. Not altogether sure why, I agreed to let them dump several tons in an open area near our pole barn. Over the course of the following summer, the wood chips turned into:
Footpaths through the garden
Initial experiments in making biochar
The beginnings of a plan to develop a network of walking paths throughout the property and we’re still discovering more uses!

Our garden turned into a showpiece, made with things that, before we used them there, had no value to anyone. The wood chips are one of many examples. Rocks plucked out of the field, where they serve only to put chips in disk blades, turn into foundations for cabins and beautiful borders that keep the grass out of the garden. Weeds in the woods, like garlic mustard and stinging nettle, end up delighting dinner guests. Leaves that the Japanese beetles ate turn into lace that rivals anything from Belgium.

We can become overwhelmed with the food and environmental needs around the world. Often the first steps forward are baby steps that break us free from the captivity of “the way things are” into the imaginative future of “the way God desires things to be.” Salvaging wood chips from the dump pile may not seem all that imaginative, but it’s a simple step that relieves stress on the city landfill and pushes us to think more creatively about the many ways this common waste product could be used.

3. What are some specific steps you can make today to “turn garbage into gold” and encourage sustainable environmental practices?

These are all simple things we’re experimenting with at the Wildcat Center. Not all of what you and I do needs to be “earth-shattering” in magnitude. What we need to do is to begin, today, to find sustainable alternatives to the ways things have been done, to share those experiences, and to help others venture into a new way of being and doing. This sharing of ideas and resources will become even more crucial as the coming decade wears on and we discover the issues of food justice, sustainability, and security become key issues in our turbulent world.

We are also experimenting with “bigger Things”, things we hope can help those living in poorer countries faced with drought and often forced to grow trade-protected seeds. Biochar is a prime example. Ancient South America had a practice of turning agricultural waste (plant stems, seed husks, and so on) into charcoal dust, which they plowed back into the soil. The result was a manifold and lasting increase in fertility and health of the soil. At the Center, we’re experimenting with ways that poor farmers can use similar techniques to multiply their harvest without having to buy genetically engineered seeds or toxic (and expensive) chemical fertilizers.

Our conviction is that the Kingdom of God is different. We intend the Center to be a place where anyone can explore and see that difference; that can offer a real example of what a life that’s more aligned with God’s Kingdom might look like. As people come and participate, learn skills and values, and offer both to others, both locally and abroad, we expect to see life change for many people in some very practical ways that both honor God and offer a healthier, sustainable way of life to those who embrace it.

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