juice

James Brett is an Englishman who, in 1999 while on a business trip to Peshawar in the north west province of Pakistan, had his first glass of pomegranate juice, and fell in love with it. He founded the first pomegranate juice drink in the UK, Pomegreat. (link NSFW...damn those Brits.)

FACT: Afghanistan has the best pomegranates in the world especially Kandahar.

Cut to 2007. His goal is to persuade farmers in Afghanistan - which produces 93 per cent of the world’s opiates - to stop growing poppies and grow pomegranates instead. By cultivating pomegranate fields, he insists their profits will more than double. He set up a charity called Pom354. He started with land owned/shared by 16 families in Kandahar.



According to UN and Afghan government figures, a typical poppy farmer makes approximately $2,000 per acre. James insists that pomegranate farmers will more than double that at around $5,000 per acre - a big incentive with a huge payoff - helping to rid the world of a drug that approximately 11 million people worldwide are addicted to.

Cut to 2008. More and more farmers wanted to make the switch to Pom354. A tribal meeting covering the entire Nangarhar Province was called, and 200 Tribal elders invited. The tribal elders agreed to finish poppy cultivation and switch to growing pomegranates throughout the entire Nangarhar Province by next year..

Poppy cultivation in the province of Nangarhar will cease from 2009, making it poppy-free for the first time in 100 years.

In the meantime, James’s company will help subsidise the farmers for the three years it takes for the region’s first pomegranate trees to mature.

The elders told Brett that their decision was based not only on a desire to maintain a level of stability, but because he was the first person who had ever come to them as just an ordinary man rather than a member of a foreign government or a military advisor, someone who simply wanted to see positive change.



The tribal elders and Brett then conducted the official opening ceremony in that first farmer's field, now cleared of poppies, and planted the first pomegranate tree sapling. A national meeting is now being planned to expand the pomegranate industry throughout Afghanistan, with the broad support of the Afghani tribal elders as well as the government.



This is the change I want to be.

Smart, bold change that benefits more than one person/company/country.

Economically grounded so that it is easier for the people who live there to make a choice that improves their quality of life, while working towards a global solution.

I'm sure there will be bumps in this road. I'm sure the opium dealers will fight this change. I hope our governments back this program and help these farmers move towards an independence from poppies.

It was just an idea...and then it was an action.

Now, I'm not sure that Pomegreat is available in the US...although, I'm a'lookin'.



With the economy still sucking the life out of folks' wallets, my family has decided (aside from my nephew) that we will not be exchanging presents for the holidays. But, I think that maybe, I might just have one gift that I'll give them all to share.

Adopting a pomogrante tree might just be the ticket.