Paul K. Keene, Walnut Acres2001 : Organic Leadership AwardWith his wife, Betty, Paul founded Walnut Acres, the farm and direct-marketing company that first made natural foods available through the mail. Walnut Acres grew into a $10 million-a-year business. And the Keene family farm in Penns Creek, Pennsylvania, became a Mecca for the organic faithful from throughout the United States and many foreign countries. The Walnut Acres catalog, with a circulation of more than 40,000, was more popular than many magazines in its heyday. In 1954, Paul helped found the Pennsylvania chapter of the Natural Foods Associates. He and Betty created the Walnut Acres Foundation in 1964, establishing an orphanage in southern India where they had been teachers in the 1930s. Paul helped found the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture in 1993. Paul Keene passed away in 2005. He was 94. |