Month: April 2013

In another life, the decorative vase fermented beer in the Amazon, a mixture of mashed sweet potatoes, river water and a little spit.

Michael Bernstein and his wife Jeanne travel the world looking for these handmade pieces to then sell in their Tucson shop, Colonial Frontiers. This is the future direction of small businesses: selling niche products with international connections.

Although an April report by the World Trade Organization predicted a weak year for global trade as European economies continue to flounder, niche businesses can often outride these storms, with the needs of their precise markets unaffected, according to Eric Nielsen, the director of the Arizona branch of the U.S. Commercial Service.

In Tucson, proximity to Mexico has created a market for specialized small businesses to both import and export goods internationally.

By: Zack Rosenblatt and Kyle Johnson

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In season four of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson was arrested for a DUI and lost his driver’s license.

Marge convinced him to give up beer for one month. With the struggle getting harder by the day, Homer attended a baseball game to try and take his mind off of sobriety.

As it turns out, he’s the only person in the stands NOT drinking a beer.

“I never realized how boring this game is,” Homer said, as the ball boys argued over who would retrieve a stray beach ball that landed on the field.

Now imagine a baseball game at the University of Arizona. It’s a blazing hot, Sunday afternoon — the perfect time for a nice, cold brew.

Except the stands were empty, and beer wasn’t for sale.

Shelves filled with local herbs from the Southern Arizona desert. Photo by Ashley Guttuso

You won’t find white lab coats, prescription pads, or even a pharmacy sign here.  Just shelves holding old mason jars filled with Siberian Ginseng, Sarsaparilla, Sassafras, Wild Cherry Bark, among an abundance of other herbs.

Tucson Herb Store owner Amanda Brown mixes up oils, herbs, and other native Southern Arizona plants for customers seeking an alternative to traditional, over-the-counter, and prescription medications.

“Some people are skeptical at first,” said Brown after she retold a story about a New Jersey couple that recently visited her shop.  Unaccustomed to natural healing methods from Southern Arizona’s local desert plants and flowers, the couple chose a few items to implement into their health care routine, a routine Brown said is a natural approach to health that treats what western medicine sometimes cannot.

“It’s a totally different lifestyle for some people who haven’t used herbal medicine before,” Brown said about the ancient tradition of herbalism, the study and use of medicinal properties of plants.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48 percent of Americans use at least one prescription while 31 percent use two or more prescribed medications monthly.  These numbers have continued to rise steadily throughout the past ten years, according to the CDC.

With prescription drug use steadily rising along with costly health care, it’s no wonder more people are turning to alternative medical practices.