Journal Times Article On Fair Trade Gemstones

Introduction:

An article in the Journal Times from Racine WI discusses a local jeweler’s line of fair trade gemstones from Eric Braunwart’s Columbia Gem House, along with supporting comments from Steve D’Esposito from Earthworks.

Eric has received tons of publicity in the mainstream jewelry trade press. Yet this type of grass roots story small newspapers is more important in certain ways. We need press like this in order to educate customers on these issues. As the JCOC surveys show, it is education which will ultimately build the market demand that will shift the jewelry sector.

Unfortunately from my point of view, anyway, the quote from Human Rights Watch on Burma lumps the entire Burmese gem trade together. The situation with jade which is auctioned off by the government to Chinese buyers is entirely different from the small scale artisanal mining of rubies, as I have discussed in earlier posts.

Here’s a link directly to the article:

www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/05/10/

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