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----PO BOX 5588, Santa Fe, NM 87502-5588------(505-745-0589)-----www.TheSun-News.com |
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Vol.5. NO.1......................................................Pages 10 and 11
Inside the camper shell: Large
companies have cornered the camper shell market in Santa
Fe! Supposedly, there are numerous camper shell
manufacturers, but in reality most of them are owned by
the same parent company. To avoid the high prices of the
conglomerates you can head north on 285 to Río Grande
Camper Shells where Reyes González has been making
camper shells on-site for over twenty-five years. What
follows is a brief account of big business, small
business and my search for a reasonably priced camper
shell.
According to the ads, Río Grande has the best prices. I
head up 285 until the sign “Valle de Arroyo
Seco” announces its redundancy. Sandy cliffs rise in
the bright light. A bright, sandy haze alters the color
of everything in the valley. I see a large fenced-in lot
overgrown with dry grass, yucca, and cactus. The camper
shells are on metal racks amidst the desert growth.
Reyes González, the owner of Río Grande Campers, is in
his ramshackle office. He shows me where to look among
the racks. “We make them all right here,” he
says with pride. He tells me that the advertised
$275 price is for the basic model without any side
windows. “It’s only to bring the people
in,” he says. I ask him if I can drive my truck near
the racks to try one on and match the red color and he
says, “Oh, I don’t let anyone drive back
there”. Finally, he lets me hold some sample colors
up to my truck and knowingly allows me to look at
pictures of the different styles of camper shells on
different trucks. We chat briefly and my jaws begin to
unclench. I leave with a half smile.
After making certain that Río Grande is the cheapest, I
begin to wonder why similar shells cost at least two to
four hundred dollars more at the other dealers. I call
the local dealers and ask who their suppliers are. The
first says Century in Indiana. The second says they get
them from Leer in California because “they’re
the biggest in the world and that’s reason to be
with them”.
I search for the companies on the Internet in an attempt
to understand their costliness and find Leer’s
colorful web site. It is strewn with photos and slogans,
but when I try to contact them, the page proclaims,
“all questions should be directed to our
distributors.” However, on the bottom of the page it
does say: “Leer, a division of the Truck Accessories
Group.” As it turns out, the Truck Accessories Group
(TAG) is Century’s, Leer’s and two other large
camper shell manufacturer’s parent company. However,
the most shocking revelation is that TAG is merely a
subsidiary of JB Poindexter & Co., which owns ten
subsidiaries, employs over three thousand people and has
a total annual revenue of $500 million, $150 million of
which is from the TAG. I feel, as if, in trying to loose
a small rock from the base of a mountain, the whole
mountain had fallen on me. Cash
in hand, I am back at Río Grande Campers. This time
Reyes lets me into the shop to view the wide variety of
colors that he has; we joke around and finally sit down
to fill out an order form. We talk about our lives and
when I ask him how old he is, his eyes twinkle and he
says, “I’m not as old as my shoes and the hills
are.” “You gotta have sayings,” he tells
me. We laugh. The half smile has turned into laughter.W
hat is the benefit of buying a camper shell from the big
conglomerate, since they cost more and they are no better
than the ones that Reyes and his one employee of 20 years
make? Maybe the big companies can pay their workers more
than the $9.50 per hour that Reyes pays. I ring one of
the Leer Factories and inquire about a job. They are
continually hiring for the production line and the pay
starts at $8-10 an hour. Where, then, does all of their
money go, if not to employees or higher quality
materials? I want to buy some stock so that I can have
access to JB Poindexter & Co.’s financial
reports, but the minimum investment I can make with
anyone is one thousand dollars. And then it was all clear
to me: the benefit of buying a camper shell from JB
Poindexter & Co. is not for me at all. The benefit is
for people who can actually afford to invest in the stock
market, not some recent college graduate. The benefit is
for the executives of JB Poindexter & Co., not their
employees or the people who need to buy a camper shell to
make a living as a carpenter, plumber, or chimney sweep. The last time I go to see Reyes is to pick up my beautiful, bright red camper shell. The old man greets me with his sparkling eyes, a million wrinkles around those eyes and a mouth that quivers mischievously always threatening to break into laughter. He spryly steps up into the bed of my pick-up to fasten the shell on and I ask him when he started his business. He replies that he started it “before the hills were hills.” And as he puts the serial number “351” on my camper shell with a hammer and some metal punches, it dawns on me that my camper shell is not simply fresh out of the package. No, it is made with parts. Parts that were put together by hands that have been putting parts together since before the hills were hills. Rising
out of this desperation, cocoa farmers formed the
Conacado Cocoa Cooperative in order to develop the
quality of their product and to gain direct access to the
international market. Together, they experimented and
discovered that fermenting the cocoa beans gave them an
especially fragrant aroma and rich flavor. They found
chocolate makers in the European market who paid more
than the market price for their cocoa beans. The
production of this special cocoa was soon taken up by
larger producers, but the cooperative was already one
step ahead of the competition. They developed an organic
cocoa production program and nearly 100% of their growers
were certified, giving them access to the growing organic
foods market. In
1995 they joined the Fair Trade system. The basic tenet
of Fair Trade is that producers should be paid a fair
price for the goods they produce. The Fair Trade
Labeling Organization International, which certifies Fair
Trade products, has a method for determining a fair price
for the whole chain of production. According to their
analysis, the minimum sustainable price for one ton of
cocoa is $1600 (approximately $600 above the market
price). This price is fixed, regardless of
fluctuations in the market price. In addition,
under Fair Trade rules, the cooperative receives a social
premium of $150 per ton from the chocolate makers who buy
the cocoa. This money is used democratically by the
cooperative to fund infrastructure, healthcare and
educational projects for the farmers and their families.
For instance, after Hurricane George swept through the
Dominican Republic in 1998, the cooperative used the
funds to rehabilitate their devastated farms. “To
choose fair trade” Fernandez says “is not only
to improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers in the
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Africa and many
other countries, but to guarantee that our organization
is always run democratically, that both women and men
will have the same opportunities, that children will not
be forced into labor and that the product will be
produced with total respect for the environment”.
The Conacado Cocoa Cooperative is a small revolution in
an era when free market fundamentalism has continued to
impoverish the poor and enrich the wealthy. The farmers
are standing up in the face of this economically unjust
system by producing a socially sustainable, quality
product and demanding a fair price. However, even with
its great strides forward, the cooperative makes up only
24% of the cocoa farmers in the Dominican Republic and
the cooperative itself has to sell much of its product on
the conventional market. You can take part in this
economic revolution by making sure the chocolate you buy
bears the Fair Trade logo and demanding Fair Trade
chocolate at your local grocery store.
Products made with Conacado cocoa are also carried
by: Equal
Exchange www.equalexchange.com Dagoba
Organic Chocolate www.dagobachocolate.com Green
Mountain Coffee Roasters www.gmcr.com La
Siembra Cooperative
Mad-Cow
Case in US Shows Gaps in System By
Laurie McGinley On
December 22nd, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman
stunned cattle ranchers with the announcement that
mad-cow disease, which had devastated beef industries in
Britain and Japan, had reached the U.S. A brain sample
from a cow pulled off the slaughter line at a processor
in Moses Lake, Wash., had been found to harbor the
disease. Many
agriculture experts say more testing is needed, and the
way the Washington state cow was discovered helps explain
why. The 4-year-old cow only came to the attention of
federal inspectors at a meat plant in Moses Lake because
she had injured her pelvic canal by giving birth to an
unusually big calf. That suggests that this cow was
tested only as a fluke, not because it was exhibiting
symptoms of mad cow. The
impact of one cow is likely to be dramatic because she
introduces a horrific and incurable disease to U.S.
shores. People who eat beef products accidentally laced
with the nerve tissue of infected cattle, such as
processed meats, can catch the human equivalent of the
disease, which eats holes in the victim’s brain.
Mad Cow Why
Tattoos Can Kill You
could die a slow and agonizing death from a tattoo or
piercing. A long list of killers like: Aids, Hepatitis B,
Hepatitis C, Syphilis, Tetanus, Pneumococcal Disease,
Influenza, Tuberculosis, and more can all result in death
to those that may become infected with these diseases.
They can be transmitted by unsafe practices during tattoo
and body piercing procedures. It is easy for “
Johnny Tabletop” to buy professional equipment on
“eBay” and set up shop in their kitchens,
living rooms or just about any old place with little or
no training. No license is required. It’s easy.
Anybody can do it. Right? How
do you know if they really have sterilized their tools
and ink? Bleach and boiling in water will not insure that
the tools are safe to use on anyone. For
these reasons tattooists and piercers should not practice
their art in their homes or the homes of others.
Professional body artists work in commercial
establishments that are clean, sanitary, and use
sanitizing cleaners and disinfectants approved for
hospitals. They are open to public scrutiny. Autoclave
sterilizers are the only way that equipment, needles,
inks, jewelry, and instruments can be sterilized and safe
for use. Use
extreme caution when deciding to get a tattoo or
piercing. Select a qualified professional that is a
member of a professional association such as “The
Alliance Of Professional Tattooists,” and has
current proof of continuing education in Safety,
Sanitation, Bloodborne Pathogens, and Disease
Prevention. Tattooing,
Piercing, and other forms of Body Art are not regulated
in most counties in New Mexico. The New Mexico State
Legislature failed to pass HB-480, The Body Art Safe
Practices Act in 2003. Your
life may depend on your efforts to protect yourself and
your loved ones from unsafe Body Art Practices and the
life threatening diseases that result. Let the State
Legislature know if you support the regulation of
tattooing and piercing. For more information contact: The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, Inc. (520) 524-5549 www.safe-tattoos.com
. What Bush wants, Bush gets The
Bush Administration and biotech industry won a
significant GE battle recently. After a five year
moratorium on genetically engineered (GE) foods, the
European Union has caved in to pressure from the US and
has now conceded that it will lift the ban and approve GE
sweetcorn. This resignation of food safety standards
falls on the heels of New Zealand’s cancellation of
a two year moratorium on GE crop trials, which happened
just a few weeks ago.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/corn111803.cfm
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Inside This Issue
About the Cover....... 3 Ad Sales Person Wanted.... 2 Armada of Terror...... 6 Book Reviews............... 15 Gathering: The Sacred Breath...... 5 GE-Free Northern California. 4 Good Sayings6 Homeless Assistance Monies...... Inside the Camper Shell............... 10 Local Organic Profiles... 12 Mad Cow Disease... 11 Movie Making in NM...... 7 No Child Left Behind..... 1 North Central NM Events 3 Pregnancy Q and A...... 15 Testing Faith............... 14 Urban Legend............... 14 What Bush Wants, Bush Gets........ 14 “What Does Love Mean?”.... 8 Why Can Tattoos Kill............... 11 |
