Robert Mondavi's Taste3 takes it to the third dimension

Taste3 became a three-time winner when it presented its third-anniversary conference of art, food and wine at Copia this. A mind-game, three-day event that continues to raise as many questions as it asks by blending a mix of a few things old with a whole lot very new. The meritage of 38 speakers produced an energetic sampling of comics and merchants, profs, hippies, and heros, and allowed them to blend as naysayers and promoters. It proved to be a combination to tease minds and share in the many flavors of life.

In the true fashion of its founder, the late Robert Mondavi, the event was not just a dialog for wine, art, and food buffs, but for anyone living on the planet. Robert, who passed away last May, one month short of his 95 birthday, still made his presence felt in this methodically designed event. And in his absence, Margrit Mondavi, his wife, his side-kick, and his co-provocateur, continued that spirit and energy and passion by engaging the audience and guests from early Thursday morning into and beyond the late hours of Saturday night--you had to see it.

Some remarkable features of the conference included a seed-to-harvest-to-kill urban producer, who farms her backyard in downtown Oakland, to an ancien who had the courage to continue to make wine even under the raining rockets of the Lebanese civil war. It warned, too, that food research is sparking Big Brother symptoms, which use cameras to watch you eat, and scales to weigh your indulgence.

Peering into the future, Professor Roger Boulton of UCDavis, presented his concerns about the footprints wineries are leaving behind. One of the biggest problems, he says, is in the manufacturing of glass products, which he says accounts for 50 percent of the carbon footprint, alone. His other concerns for the future of wine making evolve around the use of fossil fuels in processing, packaging and shipping. On greenhouse gases, he worries over the increase in nitrous oxide N2O. Produced from Ag production and fuel use, N2O can be a major cause of lung and breathing problems from ozone and smog.

With between 5 to 10 liters of water needed to produce one liter of wine, Boulton sees the water footprint a concern, as well, . "The aquifers presently in use are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, and in some areas permits for wineries are not being issued because there is no water available." He said wineries have to think in term of reusing their water resources. "These are the big questions now. How will we recover it [water], how will we capture it and store it, and how will we use it?" His advice, too, is to move to sustainable agriculture, and sooner than later. "It takes approximately 60 years to become fully adjusted to any change. We have to decide where we are on the curve."

Benjamin Wallace, is the author of the best selling "The Billionaire's Vinegar," the story of the alleged counterfeit bottle of Chateau Lafite reputed to be owned by Thomas Jefferson, and which sold at auction for $156,000 dollars. In his presentation, he raised the question, does a $1,000 bottle of wine deliver 100 times the pleasure of a $10 bottle of wine? Wallace said that in a study in which the same wine was bottle under a dozen different wine labels, the most expensive label was the one favored. It was found that in measuring brain transmissions, individuals do, indeed, experience more pleasure when tasting a wine that is listed as the more expensive, even if it is, in fact, the same as a wine with a lower price.

According to Dennis van Engelsdorp, apiarist for the state of Pennsylvania, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), is taking 30 percent of the bees each year in this country. "The bees seemed to have caught the flu, and no one is sure why," he said. adding that it borders on a national emergency. "Some bee keepers have lost between 50 to 80 percent of their colonies. If we were to lose our cattle in those figures people would be alarmed, but many are not aware of the disaster we can face without bees. One in every three bites of food we take is influenced by bee pollination. We wouldn't starve, but our choice of foods, and our diet would be greatly limited."

van Engelsdorp is also concerned that bats are also in decline from a disease called, Natural Deficit Disorder (NND). Because bats are important to insect control, one of his proposals is to eliminate lawns and allow for the return of meadows. He points out that lawns are in reality serious pollution producers, and responsible for 11 percent of all specticide use in the country. "Lawns are deserts on steroids," he said. "They are responsible for at least 5 percent of our greenhouse gases. His advice, everyone should trade lawns for meadows, and buy a beehive as a pet.

Southern Oregon University geography professor Greg Jones sees the warming of the world continuing during the next millennium and sees the eventual need for present grape growing regions to either find new growing areas or plant new varieties. "One factor is that in some regions the night time temperatures are going up three-times faster than during the day," he said. "We're having longer and warmer growing seasons. Plants are growing faster by 10 to 20 days."

While there is less tendency toward frost damage, Jones indicates that with warmer dormant periods, certain crops and their quality are in jeopardy. He said berry sizes would probably increase, and irrigation issues have to be addressed. Global warming can also bring about an increase in plant disease, and invite new insects into the wine regions. Napa, he said could move from a Region two to four, to a three to five, and possible a four to five. "The viticulture of tomorrow won't be the same as today," he concluded.

According to Columbia University, public health and microbiology professor Dickson Despommier, virtually all of the agricultural lands are in use; while the planet expects an additional 3 billion people within the next 30 years. His solution is to head for the roof. Organic, vertical urban farming is one of the solutions. "Agriculture produces more pollution from herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers than any other activity," he said. "Vertical farming will reduce fuel cost to zero, and we'll have cleaner air, and cheaper food."

Despommier added that the great energy and water sources within the urban centers need to be processed for use rather than as waste. "We spend a fortune to get rid of human waste, and we should be processing it as energy," he said, estimating that processed, human waste can produce 900 million kilowatt hours of electricity each day.

Writer, Novella Carpenter, is an urban farmer, who walks the walk. She not only farms the back yard of her west Oakland home, about 10 blocks from down town, she has also raised bees, chickens, goats, rabbits and pigs. Along the way, she has harvested and consumed the produce of her labor. Part of the pig, she said, is still curing into prociutto.

Photo journalist and activist, Chris Jordan, bombarded the conference with staggering statistics regarding American and world consumer waste: Not only are 14 million supermarket bags used every hour, but one million plastic cups are used every six hours, just by the airlines alone. Most telling is the fact that the world's most recent penchant for bottled water has created a need for two million such bottles every five minutes. His stats indicate, too, that 1.6 million aluminum cans are disposed of every 30 seconds. Americans are burning fuel at a rate of 20.6 million barrels a day. Its closest rival? The Chinese, who burn 7 million barrels daily-- 3.5 times the population of the United States, and burning 3 times less. "Thirty-two thousand woman also go in for a boob-job every month," he said. "They're now being giving away as a high school graduation gift, supposedly to help their daughters through college."

And as to the future of food and wine, the conference hints that it can be anything from haute-gourmet to blowtorched cream puffs; from $1 million plus wine auctions to buying wine from vending machines along with your BabyRuth. So, with 38 intellectual points of view to deal with, Gay comedian Tom Reilly and the poet Rives, combined to mock these very speakers, in an emperor-has-no-clothes finale. Clearly wine and food and art were not the sole issues of this conference. There was an underlying concern with the direction of the planet, and how the human race and its art and food and wine will survive on it.

Some of the ideas presented would be like building a subway to the moon, while others are as simple as falling off a bike. Not in dispute was how the conference concluded on a vibrant, loud 'n 'lectrifying, new Cuban sound from the Tiempo Libre. Unlike the proverbial month of March, Taste3 came in like a lion, and went out the say way. Clearly, a Mondavi-inspired creation, meant to stir things up, and did. Robert Mondavi, who brought the Napa Valley to the forefront with great wine, also introduced great chefs, great artists, and great music. It is no reach, to conclude, that this man would, and could, bring us the great thinkers, as well.