A SWINDON entrepreneur is waiting to hear whether his plan to replace Afghanistan’s opium crop with pomegranate trees will be backed by President Hamid Karzai.
James Brett, 40, is the founder and driving force behind Plant for Peace, an international charity based in Bath Road, Old Town.
For James, it’s the latest chapter in an extraordinary life that has seen him go from being a troubled young drug abuser living rough in woodland to becoming a successful businessman and a respected force for good.
The charity’s aim is to plant 70 million pomegranate trees in the strife-torn country from which about 90 per cent of the world’s heroin originates.
The Afghan government has the final say on whether Plant for Peace’s strategy will go forward, but James, a married dad-of-three, is optimistic.
He said: “This project is counter-narcotics, counter-insurgency, mass employment for people who have been insurgents – and the aim is ultimately for a stable nation and an exit by foreign forces.”
Plant for Peace’s backers range from American government relief agency USAid to MPs and senior military personnel, and he has spoken before thousands of tribesmen as well as meeting face to face with General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Afghanistan.
James said: “Afghanistan is an amazing country with a very resilient and hospitable people.
“We have the opportunity with this programme to rectify the damage and trauma that has been caused by the 35 or 36 years of conflict Afghanistan has suffered.
“It is time to stand up and deal with these problems.”
James knows all too well about dealing with problems. As a teenager, a series of family tragedies led him to depression and dabbling in soft drugs.
Eventually, the former Ridgeway School pupil left home and spent more than a year living rough in woodland.
Even then, his resourcefulness came to the fore. Borrowing a book on fieldcraft from a library, he lived mostly off the land.
He later secured council accommodation and turned his life around to such an extent that by his mid-20s he was able to buy a house in Melksham, taking advantage of a property boom.
Always fond of travel, he was in Pakistan in 1999 when he happened to buy a glass of pomegranate juice from an old man’s roadside stall and realised the drink was a potential business venture.
He began selling the juice under the Pomegreat brand name in 2003, and it was available in hundreds of supermarkets within less than a year. A pomegranate wine followed.
Insatiable traveller James was in Afghanistan in 2007 when he found himself talking with a farmer, who revealed that opium was his sole crop.
When James asked the farmer whether he’d consider growing pomegranates instead if he could make a living from such a crop, the farmer readily said he would.
In that moment, the idea that became Plant for Peace was born, and it soon became his overwhelming priority. Convincing opium growers that fruit can be just as profitable a crop is not easy, though.
“I have had to fight my corner on that one,” he said. “The hardest part was getting recognition by the international community, but I’ve done it.”
James, who spends some 65 per cent of his time in Afghanistan, has also spoken to people with Taliban connections, emerging convinced that 90 per cent of those currently thought to belong to that group would be only too happy to return to farming if the opportunity arose.
“They’ll be going home,” he said. “They’ll be queuing up for their saplings and going home.
“That’s one of the things that drives me.”
He has spoken to large audiences of Afghan tribesmen, including 6,500 in Jalalabad and 12,500 in Herat, and been invited to set fire to a seized drugs haul worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
As well as USAid, Plant for Peace has the corporate support of The Body Shop and prominent British law firm Slater Heelis Collier Littler.
Many prominent individuals have also voiced support, among them Chief of the Defence Staff Sir David Richards and Lady Richards, as well as former British Army chief Sir Richard Dannatt and Lady Dannatt.
The list also includes former US Senator David Karnes, businessman Sir William McAlpine and Lady McAlpine, the Marquess of Reading and Lady Reading, Viscount Erleigh, House of Lords front bencher Baroness Rawlings, Colchester MP Bob Russell and Afghan MP Babrak Shinwari.
James believes his own past troubles have given him added strength and determination.
“We have to believe in ourselves,” he said. “There’s a chance for everybody out there and we can all change.
“I was a very angry person with a lot of loss and pain, and I’m very grateful that my past has enabled me to do this project.
“Having nothing to lose gave me the freedom to take risks that other people wouldn’t.”
You can find out more about Plant for Peace at www.PforP.org
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