March 2022 | Lab Grown Magazine
March 2022 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 34 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | March 2022 35 Note: Whenever you read ‘guidelines’ please replace that word with ‘law.”). Those not adhering to the FTC Jewelry Guidelines and/or the FTC Green Guide may expect a Federal warning letter citing the issues, Maybe even a few letters. If you fail to comply with the requested timeframe and actions noted and don’t have any undisputable evidence to support any claim or wording called out in the publications, you’ll be fined. Maybe more than once. Maybe your business license gets revoked. Maybe you go to jail. We don’t know as it’s never gone to that extreme yet.The point is, it’s the US Federal Government, so it’s best to be on your best behavior. THE FTCTOPTHREE Three ‘action items’ top the current Green Guides list.They are: 1. Marketing qualifiers should a LGD company opt to use such terms as ‘green,’ or ‘eco- friendly’ in their promotional, marketing or sales messaging through any medium. The aforementioned are just two ‘danger terms.’ If you use them and can’t scientifically prove their use by an independent third party, and as cleared through FTC attorneys, mandated penalties will ensue. Second on the current Green Guidelines hit list is ‘Carbon Offsets’ followed by ‘Certifications and Seals of Approval’. Seeing that successful diamond/ jewelry companies have these three items top-of- mind (or should) it seems a fitting time to compare IGDA’s five-pointed mission statement. It is: While we’ve attempted to interview the IGDA’s President offering an editorial platformonmore than one occasion,we haven’t heard back yet.Our outreach was before and during their ‘2.0 development mode,’ though, and to be fair, they are probably formulating their full media outreach currently. We hope to connect with the IGDA soon though, (insert shameless plug) as this remains the only publication that caters to LGDs monthly, and has retained a surprisingly significant readership base. Our readers are comprised of independent North American jewelry retailers, B2B LGD equipment sellers, diamond grading labs and growers/ distributors. GOTMILK? There are over 60,000 dairy farms in America. That adds up to thirty million metric tons of cow milk that was shipped in the US in 2020. With the advent of ‘fake milk,’ such a soy, almond, oat, rice and coconut, many dairy farmers have been forced to reduce their output, sell farmland, and engage in hefty legal battles with non-diary groups… The Independent Soy Milk Makers (INTSOY) for example. Like the diamond industry, there are local non- profits/groups to assist this group. The FDA is involved, of course, but it’s the American Dairy Association (ADA) who intervenes most. Fun fact: Soy milk has much more calcium, more vitamin B-12, and more vitamin D that cow’s milk, with the exact same calories as natural, whole milk.Wild. Does the ADA deny those facts, or even try to downplay them? No. Hard stop. While the ADA namesake alone could easily condone them for not shining a light on the soy milk benefit directly compared to their own product, they did, and they do. Openly. Why? For the same reason the billionaires running the world’s largest fossil fuel companies do not fight publicly with electric car creators. Have you ever seen a negative headline from Exxon against Elon Musk? Or vice-versa? Yes,there were some nasty ExxonMobile shareholder screaming sessions in 2008 and a week or two of hot water PR in 2016 and 2019. And, yes, Musk fought back hard in 2016, but hardly a tweet in 2019. Each side realized, the time and expense to fight was time and expense not allocated to current profitability. An olive branch was extended, and mutually accepted. Publicly, anyhow. FROM IRON TO IRONY (OR) THE COMPARISIONS ARE UNCANNY Musk didn’t know that Exxon shareholders angry against electric cars in 2008 would erupt into local floodgates of bad press, state-by-state, less than a year later. The splashy anti-electric car assault produced lukewarm results. Within weeks, the hype was water under the bridge. But there’s more to this story that we should learn from. During Exxon’s Summertime hoopla, the fossil fuel giant was pumping investment dollars into Electrovaya.That was a ‘catalyst’ for their launch into the all-electric car sharing and rental market called 1. Ensure that lab-grown diamonds are interpreted fairly and factually. 2. Serve as an authentic knowledge source for lab- grown diamonds for both consumers and trade. 3. Lead the IGDA members across industrial, government and consumer forums and work collectively to resolve any issues that impact the lab-grown diamond industry. 4. Encourage ethical industry practices and standards among IGDA members. 5. Promote cooperation and encourage discussions between various sections of the lab-grown diamond industry.”
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