World Food Prize laureate turns ‘mines to vines’
Heidi Kühn walked through her first minefield, in Dragalić, Croatia, in 2000. Workers there asked her blood type in case she stepped on a land mine.
“That was such a defining moment,” Kühn said. “I was with a friend and we looked at each other in the eye and we were like, ‘What have we gotten ourselves into?’ And they suited me up.” Kühn, a California native, has earned international recognition for Roots of Peace, the non-profit she founded in 1997 that transforms heavily mined areas into sustainable farmland. Or as Kühn puts it, she’s turning mines to vines.