Look back to the future

Wines & Vines, Jan, 2003 by Al Cribari

Built-In Breathalyzer Has Some Bugs

A new sensor no bigger than a silver dollar can detect blood-alcohol levels in a moving vehicle, but is so sensitive that a passenger's perfume can trigger an alarm.

The device, engineered by two University of Texas, Arlington professors, attaches to a windshield and sends a wireless signal to a remote receiver. It could send a signal to a cell phone or disable a car engine if alcohol is detected.

Because of its sensitivity to perfume, which has an alcohol level of .02, the system is not considered practical for law enforcement because it would "systematically discriminate against half the population," according to Sia Ardekani, one of its inventors.

Instead, an Arlington police sergeant suggested, it might be useful for parents and employers.

San Joaquin Farmers Make Anti-Development Deal

The American Farmland Trust has made a deal with eight farm owners to protect some 600 acres of land in California's Central Valley from development. The farmers will receive a total of $4.6 million in return for preserving a one-mile by one-half mile strip of land bordering the city of Madera. This agricultural easement allows the farmers to continue to cultivate the land, while providing an infusion of cash for improvements. The easements trade the development rights into perpetuity.

According to Greg Kirkpatrick of the American Farmland Trust in Visalia, this is the first time eight landowners closed easements at once. "It is a real tribute to their spirit and desire to see this land protected."

Grapegrower Denis Prosperi lead the movement to protect the agricultural zone, when he realized that although he could sell off a section of his properly for housing to pay for replanting his vineyards, his long-term neighbors objected. It took three years of meetings, but eventually the pact was made, welcome news to nearby wineries including Canandaigua and Quady, who feared the rural atmosphere of their tasting rooms would be destroyed.