Heidi Kuhn Featured in Forbes' 50 Over 50

DECEMBER 16th, 2021 NEW YORK CITY– Yesterday, during a celebration event featuring a conversation with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Roots of Peace founder Heidi Kühn was recognized among the Forbes’ “50 Over 50” honorees in the category of “Women over 50 Who Are Leading the Way in Impact.”

 Forbes launched the 50 Over 50 project in June 2021, in partnership with Mika Brzezinski’s “Know Your Value” Initiative. The nominees are changing their communities and the world in ways big and small through social entrepreneurship, law, advocacy and education.

This is a landmark moment for one of the nation's leading female philanthropic founders. Heidi Kühn started Roots of Peace in 1997 to transform landmines into sustainable vineyards and orchards. In the 25 years since launching Roots of Peace’s “Mines to Vines” mission from her basement, the organization has grown into one of the country’s most influential nonprofits.

Roots of Peace has helped remove 100,000 land mines from the former battlefields of seven countries, including Afghanistan, Croatia and Vietnam. In their place, the organization has supported local farmers in planting high-value export crops (pomegranates instead of opium poppies, for instance), thereby creating a path for millions of families out of poverty. Over the past 25 years, Roots of Peace has planted over 6 million fruit trees and impacted millions of families worldwide.

This week’s honor provides a joyful end to a difficult 2021 for Roots of Peace, as well as Heidi personally. Earlier this year Kühn faced down the challenge of regime change in Afghanistan– a grave threat to the workforce on the ground and their decades of important progress in all 34 of the nation’s provinces. Despite the Taliban takeover in August, Roots of Peace was able to retain and protect their staff of 360 Afghan workers, managing over $85 million in contracts, while training an additional 6.6k agricultural workers in advanced horticultural practices that will help feed future generations– a boon to an Afghan job market 80% reliant on agricultural work. Roots of Peace’s work facilitated domestic sales of $4.6 million dollars of crops as the nation faces a food shortage this winter (as recently highlighted by The New York Times).

Kühn also survived hospitalization this year, after complications from COVID-19 led to double pneumonia and a broken hip that was forced to be replaced. Already a cancer survivor, Kühn is proud to have recovered and to be standing among her fellow honorees at the brand new “Forbes on Fifth” center in New York yesterday.

“I’m deeply honored to be among the impressive, powerful women nominated for the  “50 Over 50” recognition,” Kühn said. “The recognition only redoubles Roots of Peace’s commitment to regenerative farming in war torn lands– and, at present, our efforts to bring aid to an Afghan population facing a dire food shortage in 2022.”