HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Charles Walters Jr. (June 18, 1926 – January 14, 2009) was an economist, journalist, publisher, editor, author, entrepreneur, and family farm advocate. A tireless advocate for "peoples capitalism", Walters was a president of the National Organization for Raw Materials (NORM), a long-time executive board member, and founder and editor of ''Acres USA'', the North American voice of eco-agriculture, organic farming, and the family farm.


Early life

Charles Walters Jr. was born in Ness County, Kansas, to Carl and Dorothea Walters, poor farmers struggling to survive the
Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...
. Walters' childhood was shaped first by the Dust Bowl, then by the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. He came of age following military service in the waning days of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Once discharged, he received his undergraduate degree from
Creighton University Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...
and earned a master's degree in economics from
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
on the
G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...
. As he made his way around several major urban centers before finally settling in
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
, with his wife, Ann, Charles Walters never lost his connection to the world of farming. As an economist and the son of a dirt farmer during the Kansas dust bowl, it was not lost on him when a flood of corporate money pushed the American farmer into an expensive new dependence on farm machinery, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides—about which little was known.Our History
"
A turning point for him, as for many Americans, was the publication of
Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) are credited with advancing mari ...
's ''
Silent Spring ''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during World War II. Carson acc ...
'' in September 1962, which documented the detrimental effects pesticides were having on the environment. Carson's narrative would be the cornerstone of the point-of-view Walters would bring to his writings and social criticism.


National Farmers Organization (NFO)

During the 1960s, Walters became associated with the
National Farmers Organization The National Farmers Organization (NFO) is a producer movement founded in the United States in 1955, by farmers, especially younger farmers with mortgages, frustrated by too often receiving crop and produce prices that produced a living that paid ...
(NFO) and edited the organization's news publication, ''NFO Reporter''. He also supplied numerous articles on farm economics for the publication, observing and documenting many of the activities of the NFO. One of his books, ''Holding Action'', discusses the events surrounding the milk holding actions of 1967.


Raw Materials Economics

Professionally, Walters worked as an economist and journalist producing a number of books and essays. His main professional focus was on raw materials economics, greatly influenced by the works of Carl H. Wilken, Charles B. Ray, J. Carson Adkerson, and John Lee Coulter, four men who would later become known as the "Fathers of Raw Material Economics." Walters, too, must have made an impression, for he would later serve as a president of the National Organization for Raw Materials (NORM) and served on its executive board. He remained a member of NORM's executive Board until his death and has since joined its Hall of Fame. # Raw material economics is based upon a simple idea: that raw materials income from its farms, ranches, timberlands, oceans, mines, wells, and recycling centers governs national income unless the latter is expanded by debt; since agriculture is the largest producer of new raw materials each year, it is the largest annual source of raw materials income. # The health, robustness, and sustainability of the American economy is directly tied to the production of raw materials and the price at which those raw materials first enter into commercial channels. When raw materials enter trade channels at prices in balance with the prices of labor and capital, the economy operates on an earned-income basis with no buildup of public and private debt. Conversely, when raw materials enter trade channels at less-than-parity prices with labor and capital, the economy lacks sufficient earned dollars to operate on a debt-free basis; therefore, public and private debt accumulates. Mentoring under Carl Wilken, Walters became the consummate reference source on Raw Material Economics and the foremost authority about the raw materials equation. Early in his professional career, he witnessed the powerful array of well-entrenched professors, politicians, bankers, and free traders who undermined all efforts at educating the American public and its congressional and statehouse leaders about Raw Material Economics. His mentor, Carl Wilken, had spent more time testifying before Congress prior to this death than any other American, arguing the case of a change in banking policy that would make US capitalism a generative economy, rather than a predatory one – to no avail. Over the course of time, Walters made a breakthrough. He realized how the methodical cheating of small farmers and the enforced swing toward chemical agriculture were gears in the same machine, working in tandem to transform the countryside – and not for the better. Corporate power and public policy were colluding in the destruction of the family farm, and the process was swift.


''Acres USA''

In 1970, despondent with internal politics at the NFO, Walters founded ''Acres USA'', a monthly magazine that promotes the family farm and organic farming and served as the executive editor for 28 years. Remembering the origins of ''Acres USA'' in 1995 for the journal's 25th anniversary issue, Walters said, "I didn't have the money to buy a paper, so I started one. I wanted the freedom that went with making my own decisions without the blessings of higher approved authority." Later, he assumed the status of editor emeritus while his son, Fred Walters, published the magazine from his home in Austin, Texas. Charles Walters Jr. remained in Kansas City, Missouri. Yet, the enormity of the task did nothing to deter Walters and he spent more than 40 years focusing a journalistic spotlight upon the U.S. economy's downward spiral into public and private debt seemingly without end and tracing its origins to "free market" policies of cheap food and free trade. Perhaps Walters' most significant contribution was the rescuing of the science of organic agriculture before the takeover of US agriculture by the petrochemical giants. One of these was Dr. William A. Albrecht, a University of Missouri professor whose low profile obscured decades of brilliant work in soil science. Albrecht's papers, which Walters rescued from the historical dustbin and published in several volumes, provided a rock-solid foundation for this new, scientific approach to organic farming that Acres U.S.A. liked to call eco-agriculture. Another important figure to the organic farming movement whose ideas had disappeared from public consciousness was that of Maynard Murray (1910–1983), a medical doctor and a pioneer in merging the disciplines of biology, health and agriculture as early as the 1930s when he began experimenting with "sea-solids" – mineral salts that remain after total sea water evaporation to reveal that trace minerals and other elements present in sea water were optimum for growth and health of both land and sea life. Acres published Murray's ''Sea Energy Agriculture'' in 1976 and again in 2001. Largely ignored during his lifetime, Murray's lifelong quest contributed greatly to our understanding of the role of trace minerals in the healthy growth of all organisms on the planet. ''Acres USA'' was acquired by
Swift Communications Swift Communications Inc. is an American digital marketing and newspaper publishing company based in Carson City, Nevada. Swift's primary markets are resort town Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspapers and websites as well as agricultural p ...
in 2016.


Selected publications

In addition to writing and publishing hundreds of articles about Raw Material Economics in the pages of Acres USA, Walters authored three major works on the subject. His second book, ''Unforgiven'' (1971), now in its second edition (2003), is the definitive text on Raw Material Economics derived from in-depth interviews with Carl H. Wilken, shortly before Wilken's death in 1968. A subsequent book, ''Raw Material Economics: A NORM Primer'' was published in 1982. This volume is still in print and updates the status of raw material economics into the mid-1980s. Walters also authored a paperback booklet entitled: ''PARITY—The Key to Prosperity Unlimited''. The list below includes these publications and many others. * Eco-Farm, An Acres U.S.A. Primer: The definitive guide to managing farm and ranch soil fertility, crops, fertilizers, weeds and insects while avoiding dangerous chemicals * Weeds: Control Without Poisons * Minerals for the Genetic Code: An Exposition & Analysis of the Dr. Olree Standard Genetic Periodic Chart & the Physical, Chemical & Biological Connection * Grass, the Forgiveness of Nature * Fertility from the Ocean Deep * Unforgiven, The Story of How America Has Exchanged Parity Agriculture for Parity War * Raw Materials Economics : A NORM Primer (1982) * Reproduction and Animal Health * Fletcher Sims' Compost * The case for eco-agriculture * Holding Action (1968)
“The Birth of Raw Material Economics”


* ttp://normeconomics.com/energy.html “Energy & Economics – Bound By Cycles and Natural Laws”
“Long-Term Economic Cycles Ignore Short-Term Economic Indicators”


The Charles Walters' Papers

The Charles Walters Papers (1937–2003, n.d.) are housed in the Special Collections Department at
Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...
in
Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Ames ha ...
. The papers contain correspondence and printed matter related to Walters' research, as well as copies of some of Walters' publications. Material related to the NFO includes correspondence, legal documents, printed matter, and includes both paper records and microfilm. Over half of the collection is devoted to photographs documenting the activities of the NFO throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The photographs include images of members of the NFO leadership, conventions, holding actions and other activities sponsored by the NFO. The majority of the photographs were taken by Walters.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walters, Charles Jr. 1926 births 2009 deaths American economics writers American male non-fiction writers Creighton University alumni Farmers from Kansas Organic farmers University of Denver alumni 20th-century American male writers