This video is a compilation of my harvests in the agroturismos of Italy, the desert of Argentina, and the sunshine of northern California. The music is one of my favorite songs of all time, it’s called Voyageur by Enigma. I moved out to California a year ago with a bottle of GrapeThinking, a bottle of ideas I guess you could say, that started filling up 5 years ago with conversation between myself, Jacob Bohall, Ruarri Rogan, Meghan O’Malley, and many others. Over the past year, those ideas have delightfully fermented, and the time has finally come for us to have a taste…

~circuit to cell, web to water, mind to vine~

The basis is an engine… a thinking engine that drives sustainable development, and more specifically, the health of the world. How do you create something in which the consumption heals the body and the production heals the earth?

Think about it

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They bought a car with another girl (the rock star of the group), and were planning to head way north to work on a farm for a little bit. They invited me to go, so I left my suitcase with a friend in San Francisco and hit the road with them. The following few weeks were beyond amazing… so many serendipities. My favorite was running into one of the winemakers I worked with everyday for 2 months in Argentina earlier this year in a small grocery store parking lot in Napa, and I just so happened to have a bottle of the organic wine we worked on in my backpack. Our car turned into a sustainable circus. We worked on the farm we set out for, did a little harvest work at a winery, but mainly stayed on the road visiting sustainable farms all around northern Cali. We touched Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, and Marin.

A couple of our favorites were Filigreen Farm in Anderson Valley, where Chris Tebbutt has built an amazing mixed biodynamic agriculture setup of vines and fruit orchards, it was incredible. He also had huge solar arrays setup that produce 100% of the farm’s energy… a true thinking farm. We also visited Paul Dolan at his biodynamic Dark Horse Farming Ranch in Ukiah, which was powerful. He has an “energy center” with his flow form, preparations, and a stunning “bug strip” of crazy flowers and vegetation that generates the biodiversity and balance in his vineyard. On our way south, we made a stop at Solar City somewhere on 101 south of Ukiah, which is a sustainable building/living community. We slept in a teepee and talked about what it takes to build sustainable communities.

Somewhere along the way we got tipped off about the Bioneers conference down in San Rafael so we trekked down there and crashed the conference for the weekend. I talked to Rebecca of the Biodynamics Association about heading up their booth for a day in exchange for a free pass, and she graciously accepted my offer. We got to see some amazing speakers and share even more amazing ideas, and I was able to pitch biodynamics all day Sunday at the trade show. I met some more of the folks with RSF Social Finance as well, which, in my opinion, is one of the most innovative financial organizations that exists.

We just kept going, drinking, laughing, breathing, seeing how these amazing farms are changing the environment, all while staying break even along the way. We went crazy and then sane and then crazy again. It was a ride. Now, I’m back in San Francisco to do some GrapeThinking. Represent some biowines, bring our own GT wine to market… use the elixir to drive the sustainable development of farms and communities.

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The sangiovese grape is the foundation fo the famous chianti wine from Toscana, Italia. There are said to be many alchemists in the hills of Tuscany brewing up life enhancinig elixirs with sangiovese as their base.

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I’ve been working with an amazing company here in Philadelphia called SEER Interactive and it hit me last week in our company wide meeting sitting around the whole office together with 11 women and 3 men. It was one of the best meetings I’ve ever been a part of. Not only was it relaxed, humorous, and productive, more so than most meetings I’ve attended, but I left with an overwhelming sense of peace… something I’ve never felt before in endless male dominated board, class, and conference rooms.

Sometimes I tend to feel that women possess the essence of the universe and men are simply expendable, thus the reason why man created religion and has scoured the earth with linear wasteful supply chains and chaotic ways of capitalistic thinking, because we are not in rhythm with the universe like women are. So instead we stomp around and kick up dust trying to feel what women do naturally… the connection.

There are so many problems with the world, and the reasoning could be infinite. I argue it is because of a simple disconnect between men and women, mainly in man’s lack of understanding of the enlightenment that women provide. It is the woman who is in rhythm with the world, the seasons, and the lunar cycles. They feel it, they don’t think it, they don’t have to. And they inspire men thru this feeling to create, to build… to fulfill our destiny. Everything that a man does, when taken down to its fundamental element is for a woman, the love of a woman. A man that does not love women, that does not cherish women and surround himself with strong women, cannot be enlightened… cannot create.

My personal enlightenment to all, to god, came from one thing… my love for the women in my life. There is no reason to get lost in the details and ideals. Everything is very simple. I think I’m starting to get it now.

I love women!!

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Beacons of Hope

In 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected president of my country, I remember an age of jubilation that was infused into children, adults and people from overseas alike. Backpackers would come to our country with Mandela t-shirts, and when we traveled abroad and told people we were South African we were somehow associated with a little bit of that Mandela magic and people were that little bit more welcoming. With Mandela in power, the dominant feeling was that no matter what happened – things were going to be okay.

In the past 8 years that formative optimism of the Mandela years had left me, and I found myself in the midst of a new generation of cynicism kicked off by the Clinton impeachment, followed by the stealing of the election in Gore v. Bush, and the subsequent anomalies of extraordinary rendition, water-boarding and the abomination that is Sarah Palin. When Gore released his movie, Inconvenient Truth, only then did the world realise what could have been – if only America had fought a little harder in 2000.

When I woke up on Wednesday the 6^th of November, after 18 months of watching this election, I realised the enormity of what has happened. As I showered a feeling of relief washed over me and I knew that the page has been turned.

Last night, drinking wine at a friend’s birthday party, by the end of the bottle and toward the end of the night, there was no more lamenting about the future of America and the ultimate waning power of the Western World. All the negativity and anxiety had been replaced by a palpable optimism. Progress will no longer be hindered by right-wing radicals who oppose any form of scientific advance or hope to pull society backwards – instead anything is possible. America has done the impossible and lived up to its name of the land of opportunity for the first time in many years.

From now until Obama is elected Americans have a reason to celebrate and raise their glasses in a toast to the future with their heads held high. I cannot describe the feeling of knowing that the Bush years are over. We no longer need to drink wine to forget what has happened… but can rather drink and toast to the future. Cheerz!

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Wow, what an excellent conference! A game changer. I have to thank my friends over at Village Green Energy for hooking me up with a free pass. I’ve been so passionate about this movement as long as I can remember… ever since 6th grade when I messed around with electromagenetic fields and plants. Early education for me was all about ecology and environment, and that followed with rigorous economics in college, which I didn’t quite understand about myself until now. Having not gone into banking with my degree and now seeing the state of the economy I was like shit… but David Suzuki put it so clearly… it’s (eco)nomics. I can’t believe I never recognized that. I automatically associated economics with the greedy, short-sighted mentality of Wall Street that focuses solely on the bottom line and exploiting the market for cash and egoic status. Yet you realize the bottom line is not the statement of cash flows or the balance sheet… it’s the fuckin planet. Ecology + Economics = Sustainability. This conference was absolutely buzzing! People were feeling alive and connecting and touching each other like I’ve never seen in my life. We all knew the green revolution is ready and about to change the world in a big way.

The keynotes were superb with Al Gore, Jerrry Brown, and David Suzuki really leaving a moving impact on me. Nobody was afraid to go deep. Sure there was plenty of talk about clean tech innovations or green building or policy changes.. but more so people were incredibly open about spiritual and conciousness based changes that are going to take place around the world to solve this crisis. Sarah Susanka even brought the crowd to tears with her moving presentation. It’s so much bigger than green or solar or oil… it’s about enlightening the human race that we are one and we share the same spirit with each other and with the world as a whole. I found it to be quite the religious experience to be at this conference. A few others being recently when I went into the wild of Alaska for a few weeks and when I saw the Dalai Lama speak in Bethlehem, Pa.

Aside from the heavy stuff, there were tons of innovative companies doing everything from cutting edge solar installs, to green acrhitecture consulting, to new age battery storage, smart grid stuff, efficiency software, New Resource Bank (which is exploding with business during this banking crisis… lol gotta love it!) and sooo much more. You had builders, utility reps, entrepreneurs, mad scientists, engineers, and everyone was so open and loving and connecting. I was blown away… it took me 3 full days to digest it all.

There were also brilliant seminars and panels, the best one for me being the State of Investing in Clean Tech, where partners from KPCB, Foundation, Sigma, and DFJ (all the big Menlo Park firms) talked about what companies they’re investing in and what technology is working… and yet something was different. These are VCs and of course money is there first concern, but with this clean green movement we are finally going to enter into a phase of social… or better yet eco-capitalism… where we benefit the environment and the social welfare of all while making a shitload of money and creating a shitload of jobs. This is an unprecendented opportunity in economic human history. Create a concentrically cyclical supply chain and pass the prosperity around the world. I was inspired by the VCs stories of how they’re going green in their own lives and their deep personal commitment.

A few themes from the conference to leave you with:

1) Nature to the grid baby – energy, health, architecture

2) Ecology + Economics = Sustainability (Eco-Capitalism)

3) Sky power will fuel the earth

4) The only thing special about humans is our foresight… our ability to see and shape the future. So lets use it.

5) A new connected conciousness is emerging that will limit the individual ego that has evolved and scorched our earth with fragmented, disjointed, greedy agendas. The only chance at eternal life is if we live together as one.

6) Be the change you want to see in the world!

In my humble opinion, these are unprecedented and magical times in the history of our race and our planet. There’s no better place to be then right here, and right now.

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Even the symbol of the continent of Africa has become somewhat reified in today’s media and is right up there in the realm of Cher and Mickey Mouse. Despite what all the cynics may say about celebrity involvement, I think that it is our duty to suspend our scepticism, lest we deter such influential people from bestowing their support on an entire continent in need. I think that passing proceeds along from products that Westerners buy every day is an excellent way of allowing people to contribute without requiring them to make too great a change from their lifestyle. In the words or the Red campaign

‘You make choices every day, from the clothes you wear to the music you play. Now making a choice means making a difference.’

So many young people feel frustrated at not being able to help the world, and I think that charities have the responsibility to make contribution easier than actually having to go out and join the Peace Corps.

Here are a few great ways to make a difference:
Run a marathon and get sponsorship from your friends. Many major marathons from the New York to the London Marathon and many in between allocate a certain number of spaces to people running for charity. Over here in London there are certain charities that have established partnerships with sky-diving companies, and if one is able to raise a certain amount of money through donations, the charity issues a credit to go sky-diving.

Once again, to quote Bono, what we call ‘charity’ doesn’t even fit the bill, because in most cases we’re ‘talking about justice.’ Quite simply it is not just that certain people should struggle to survive whilst others live in the lap of luxury. The key to this justice is not putting some small change in a rusty tin at the local bodega, but actual conscientious support. The charity I find to be the most inspiring is www.one.org, and I think that the more people who stand as one to make poverty history the better.

There is no doubt that with the proliferation of the Internet and the advent of the $100 laptop, with programs like Elance, Ebay, PayPal, Skype and so many others, as soon as Africa comes online we’re going to see a revolution. Quite recently I discovered a charity called ‘Infinite Family.’ This Charity enables families that live in surplus within the United States to interact with and provide support to orphans in South Africa using VOIP and e-mail. If one ponders the potential of programs like Skype in charity, then one sees the limitless potential for people in socially advantageous situations to reach out to people in disadvantaged communities. As the power of the internet grows, so to does our power as privileged people increase and enable us to make a huge difference to the lives of the people who most need it.

I urge you all to go check out www.InfiniteFamily.org and explore the possibility of becoming a Net Family. This weekend is their fundraiser, which has been sponsored by Madiba Restaurant, De Beers, Tall Horse Wines and Graham Beck. The event is set to be a great upscale occasion with African cuisine, musicians from the Paul Simon band and African wine all set in the fantastic locale of an upper west side loft. To add some sparkle to the evening, they will be selling Graham Beck Brut at $100 a glass, and in the bottom of one of the glasses one lucky participant will find a diamond from De Beers.

I feel lucky that we live in a world where people are willing to come up with such initiatives, and if we consider that this event is partly sponsored by Tall Horse and Graham Beck we can see yet another way that wine is changing the world.

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