Story Archives of 'Business'

The State of New Hampshire is on the lookout for a serious tree killer.

We're not talking about the wooly adelgid here.

This new danger is called the Asian Longhorn Beetle.

And Kyle Lombard rates its threat level right up there with dutch elm disease and chestnut blight.

Lombard studies forest insects and diseases for the Division of Forest and Lands.

He tells NHPR's Mark Bevis that this beetle recently showed up just south of the border in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Governor John Lynch's office says federal officials have changed their minds about approving disaster aid for Merrimack and Strafford counties affected by last month's tornado.

The two counties had been left out of the original aid declaration, despite being included in the Governor's request.

They join Belknap, Carroll and Rockingham counties which had already been declared eligible for public assistance.

That tornado killed one woman and damaged more than a hundred homes when it ripped through the Granite State nearly four weeks ago.

It took 40 seconds for it to decimate the Deerfield nursery that Leslie and Peter van Berkum had spent 20 years building.

Now they're up and running again, but their business will never be the same.

NHPR Correspondent Elaine Appleton Grant visited the nursery to see how it was faring three weeks after the storm.

She files this report.

You’ve probably noticed that so-called “enhanced health drinks” are taking up more shelf space at your local gas station or super market - drinks like Sobe, Propel, Vitamin Water, VitaRain, Snapple Antioxidant Water, just to name a few. Functional beverages are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. drink market. Sales in the U.S. reached $24.8 billion in 2006, and are projected to leap to $38.8 billion by 2011. It's part of a boom in technologically-advanced health foods.

One company, Function Drinks, was founded by Alex Hughes, a 31-year-old doctor and recently chief specialist of orthopedic surgery at the UCLA Medical Center. The company makes different beverages for different uses, among them Urban Detox, Light Weight, Brainiac, Shock Sports, Night Life, Vacation, and House Call. Their sales last year reached $10 million, and that figure is expected to double this year.

But skeptics remain: Gerry Khermouch, editor of Beverage Business Insights, explains the appeal of Vitamin Water this way: "they’re indulging the consumer’s sweet tooth and offering them psychological cover for drinking sugar water."

Nathanael Johnson is a freelance reporter based in San Francisco. His article about the enhanced water industry appears in New York magazine, and he joins Word of Mouth to talk about the science behind the health claims.

(Photo by Food Chronicles)