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De-mining Sows Peace Seeds in War-Torn Lands RUTHERFORD, Calif. - Heidi Kuhn stands in a Napa Valley vineyard with sunlight grazing her head and death in her hands. No need to worry, the land mines she has brought to the upscale Grgich Hills winery have been disarmed. But in other parts of the world, huge tracts of land that once were as fertile as these have been seeded with the menacing devices that can keep a tank at bay during war, and blow the legs off an 8-year-old long after the peace. She is founder of Roots of Peace, an organization that is working to de-mine and revive former farmland in countries from Cambodia to Croatia, an effort that has drawn the support of several prominent Napa Valley vintners. For Kuhn, removing a land mine is one "small victory in the war on terrorism. Because a land mine is a seed of terror. Whether the boot of a soldier or the sandal of a child, it's an indiscriminate weapon of destruction." In the past seven years, Roots of Peace, which Kuhn runs with her husband, Gary - her four children also help out - has funded de-mining efforts that have removed hundreds of thousands of land mines and unexploded ordnance in four countries. The organization has been involved in developing grape vineyards in Afghanistan, replanting former mine fields with rice in Cambodia, restoring vineyards and orchards in Croatia and sowing wheat in Iraq. This summer, Roots of Peace received $10 million through the U.S. Agency for International Development to work with a consortium of partners, including the University of California at Davis, on a new project of restoring grape and raisin vineyards in Afghanistan. (No wine grapes are being planted in the Muslim country.) Converting mines to vines is more than a catchy slogan, those involved in the work say. It's a way to knit together tattered communities. Roots of Peace, one of a number of groups working to remove land mines, collects money it uses to hire local de-mining companies to do the work, often employing modified tractors that can absorb explosions. Once the land is free of explosives, farmers and other area leaders move in. "It's not just about de-mining for de-mining's sake," said Liz Bernstein, coordinator for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. "It's about returning the land to the community." There are still an estimated 50 million to 60 million land mines in 80 countries, but progress is being made, Bernstein says. There were about 54 land mine manufacturers a decade ago; now there are a dozen, she says. A 1997 treaty to ban the devices has been ratified or supported by more than 140 countries and a conference is scheduled this fall in Nairobi, Kenya, to review progress made since then. The ban has not been agreed to by the United States. The Bush administration announced in February that it would not sign but would only use "smart" mines timed to self-destruct so they don't pose a peacetime threat. Human rights groups contend it would be better to ban mines outright. Among those supporting Roots of Peace is Silverado Vineyards owner Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt Disney, who says she "jumped at the chance," to tackle a fixable problem in a world awash with intractable issues. "A concrete thing you can do is to support the removal of land mines," Miller said. "By doing that you're making the land safe and welcome again for anything that the people want to do." Kuhn saw the tangible results of the work in September when she visited Croatia and stood in another sunny vineyard to see, and eat, the fruits of her labors, sampling the first harvest of a former minefield. "We ate the grapes," she said. "We tasted peace."
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