MAKE MINE WINE
Can wine remove landmines, or help compensate for
limbs and lives destroyed by anti-personnel weapons?
Quixotic as it may seem, the answer is yes.

Canada was an active proponent in an international
campaign to ban landmines, and the 'Ottawa Process' of
persuasion and diplomacy helped bring over 100 nations
together in late 1997 to sign a treaty to prohibit the
use and manufacture of anti-personnel mines, and to
commit to remove and destroy existing mines.

Although the United States has declined to sign the
treaty, many nongovernmental groups in that country
have acted on its principles. (In fact, it was Jody
Williams, a determined individual American, and a
handful of US nongovernmental groups that founded the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in
1992. They shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for the
work.)

Recently, 150 California winemakers participated in a
project that raised more than US$400,000 for a UN-
sponsored adopt-a-minefield program. Richly symbolic
and thoroughly practical, the 'Roots of Peace'
vintners project raised enough to finance mine removal
on agricultural land in Dragalic, Croatia, and return
the recovered ground to grapevines.

In Canada, wine writer Tony Aspler and charitista
Arlene Willis have created 'Grapes for Humanity,' a
foundation to raise funds for another kind of
humanitarian mine action. Landmines continue to wreak
destruction long after they have exploded. Grapes for
Humanity funds works of reconstruction to help
overcome the physical, social, and economic
disabilities of landmine victims.

Grapes for Humanity raised CDN$30,000 this month at a
big-ticket tasting of premier cru French wines. That
money will support the 'Kien Khleang Rehabilitation
Center' in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, to renovate a
dormitory so that disabled from outlying rural areas
can stay (and stay with their families) when they come
for treatment. Grapes for Humanity has adopted another
project in Cambodia, and one in Honduras, for specific
fundraising.

Grapes for Humanity has focused fundraising first on
invitation-only special wine tastings, wine dinners,
and wine auctions for private donors and corporations
-- "because it is the quickest way to raise the most
money," says Willis. The next major event will be a
diner and auction of fine wines from California's
Beringer Wine Estates in October, with proceeds put
towards a 'Prosthetic Outreach Program' in Choluteca,
Honduras.

However, the Grapes for Humanity foundation is a
chartered charity and can accept donations of all
kinds and amounts. It seems a worthy effort to
displace terror with terroir.

+ MORE ...
Grapes for Humanity
http://www.grapesforhumanity.com/

Roots for Peace
"From Mines to Vines: Planting Seeds of Hope in War-
Torn Vineyards," by Jeff Cox
http://www.rootsofpeace.org/press/winenews.html

Mines Action Canada
http://www.minesactioncanada.org/home/index.cfm?lang=e