• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 17, 2008

Looks like the marketing road from relative political obscurity to mainstream America is shorter than ever: Wal-Mart says it is launching Love, Earth jewelry-a line of "completely traceable" silver and gold fine jewelry.

The products, which will be sold both at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, allow customers to go online and enter a batch number, tracing the path of their jewelry from places like Peru, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Switzerland right through to their local store, exploring the "chain of custody" at each step. The line is produced in partnership with Conservation International and the retailer's supply chain partners.

Wal-Mart says it plans to expand the number of approved mining and manufacturing suppliers, and to add diamonds to the Love, Earth line. It also says the new line is its first step in making sure all the gold, silver and diamonds it sells "come from mines and manufacturers that meet Wal-Mart's sustainability standards and criteria." The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer says it plans to have at least 10% of its jewelry products reach that standard by 2010.

With the tagline "Protecting our planet. Supporting our communities," The Earth, Love line is pitched as an environmental play--right down to the Tree of Life pendants and the Earth-Mothery Web site--and specifically addresses concerns about sustainability practices, an area that has shown an increasing amount of appeal for Wal-Mart shoppers. But by raising the issue of community, it also takes the retailer into relatively new territory: Social and political questions.

Fair-labor practices are a major issue in the mining industry. And the addition of diamonds to the line will also bring up the question of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds, those gems that are mined in a war zone and sold to finance war efforts.

The World Diamond Council says that African nations produce about $8.5 billion worth of diamonds each year--about 65% of the world's supply. The industry has greatly stepped up its efforts to police the source of diamonds--and claims that 99% of the world's diamonds are from sources free of conflict. But some activist groups say that isn't enough, and estimate that conflict diamonds have resulted in 3.7 million deaths in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.