Scott's Compost Pile

Moms at MOM’s

Posted on June 5, 2015 by MOM's Organic Market

Nearly 15 years ago, my wife and I had our first child.

One night soon after, I heard my wife semi-silently sobbing in our bathroom. I walked in to find her sitting on the edge of the tub, rocking back and forth (almost in the fetal position), crying “I don’t want to leave my baby.” This was the eve before her return to the office after taking 3 months of unpaid leave from her work as a lawyer at a Bethesda firm.

We had an in-family nanny; my wife’s sister-in-law. Even so, with the intention of making my wife’s first day back at work a bit easier, I stayed home from work the next day.

Having a baby is an odd mix of joy and struggle. On the joy side of things, there is no experience in life that rivals becoming a parent. About an hour after the birth though, instincts kick into high gear and the joy gets a bit diluted by an intense focus on the care (i.e. survival) of the child. It’s a time for the mother to recover physically, learn how to breast feed the child, and bond. It’s an intense, high alert time no matter who you are.

Once a baby is born, many families need for both parents to continue to work- and when both parents do work, some parents find that the expense of day care is a substantial (sometimes majority) of at least one spouse’s salary.

Fast forward 15 years- as active parents, my wife and I still have very little free time. It’s been a joyful, yet stressful period. Of my friends with children, I don’t know any who haven’t had roughly the same experience. Having children is an upheaval of sorts.

The US has a history of having noble priorities. Unfortunately, I believe over the past few decades, this country’s priorities have began to shift away from families, empathy and service to others, and spiritual principles. We now give more priority to corporations, judgement and righteous indignation, and status/wealth.

When it comes to supporting families (rather than corporations), the US ranks low. We are required to offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave, while the United Kingdom, Ireland, China, and Iran offer 40, 26, 14, and 12 weeks of paid leave respectively. The US falls short relative to other developed countries:

Much of our training program here at MOM’s revolves around reading books. About a year ago, our female CFO read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In and recommended we offer trainings on it. It was an enlightening book for many of us. As a result of those book sessions, a committee was formed and the group came up with a number of ideas that we’ve implemented to help working mothers.

MOM’s is proud to now offer 6 weeks of paid maternity leave to all full time employees. We know of only one other retailer in the US who offers as much (Patagonia). When a baby is born, families need support during this crucial and stressful period.

My Fill-in-the-blank Privilege

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Scott

One of the more memorable movies of my childhood was Sounder. Sounder was a dog who belonged to a poverty-stricken southern family. A particularly heart-wrenching scene in that movie is when the father is taken to prison for stealing food to feed his family. A recent incident at MOM’s reminded me of that scene…

There is an employee who has worked with us full-time for nearly a decade. After doing a recent inventory, we discovered 2 particular products missing by the dozens. They happened to be the 2 products we frequently saw this employee consuming. We checked the receipt records and neither product had been bought by any employee for months. And then we reviewed the security cameras and confirmed theft.

My first reactions were typical, fueled by feelings of betrayal, anger, and sadness. But my next wave of reactions came from a place of empathy. Everyone knows that stealing is wrong, but humans make mistakes. For justice to prevail, context should strongly be considered when determining appropriate consequences.

To put things into context, I’ll begin with myself. For starters, I’m pretty grateful that like all humans, I’m at the top of the food chain! Beyond that, I am a white male, born in the US. My parents never divorced. My mom was a stay-at-home mom who cooked 3 square meals a day, kept our house immaculately clean and organized, and made sure that we all had routines and traditions. My father had stable work and a decent salary as a college professor. I used my mom’s 2-car garage to start MOM’s (my father died when I was 17). My mom also once lent me $3,000 when I ran short of cash during the start-up phase.

I am not a woman, a minority, or homosexual. I have never faced poverty. I continue to reap the benefits of all of my life’s privileges. In fact, by historical standards (going back no further than a short century), many of us in the U.S. are living like royalty.

Some might say that I deserve what I’ve got because I’ve worked hard, taken risks, and have good judgement. But, how did I obtain a good work ethic? Or my optimism? Or my risk-assesment abilities and refusal to accept conventional thinking?

Science has shown us that these traits are largely dictated by our DNA- and we know that we are somewhat influenced by our external environment- the hand we’ve been dealt, so to speak. My work ethic was definitely instilled by my parents. I had a 365-days-per-year paper route from an early age, never received more than a $5 allowance, had to pay for all of my stuff (starting with a $35 transistor radio I bought when I was 11), and had weekly chores (of which my dad tracked with a charted point “system”).

But all of this was out of my control. I don’t recall actively pursuing, selecting, or collecting any of these traits. I feel as if they were always just there.

And then there is the employee who stole. What was her childhood like? What is her life like now? What stresses does she feel every day that I’ve never felt in my life? What infinitely complex formula of emotional experiences, DNA, and societal influences has made her what she is today- influencing every behavior from whether to get a college education to taking something that isn’t yours?

We terminated her. Part of me thinks that this employee needs forgiveness and a 2nd chance- but, a lot of her honest and wonderful co-workers are undoubtedly expecting accountability from top to bottom at MOM’s. And we must wonder in these situations: is this just the tip of the iceberg? If this employee is stealing a little bit every day, what else is she doing (or willing to do) that we are unaware of?

Situations such as these are complex. I generally find “zero tolerance” policies and positions to be- well, intolerant. They seem rigid and too simplistically black and white. The “Just Say No To Drugs” campaign comes to mind as an example of this, as it largely addressed drug use as the main problem, rather than a symptom of larger, complex problems.

It makes me sad (and sometimes mad) when people steal from MOM’s, whether employees or shoplifters, yet my challenge is to remember that there is much I don’t know. I need to strive to be objective and fair- and remember to live by the wise words: “that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.”

Posted in MOM's Organic Market, personal | Tagged forgiveness, nature vs nurture, privilege, theft | 20 Comments

Support Your Local Dead Zone?

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Scott

It’s that time of year when farmers’ markets and roadside produce stands are popping up all over. I like to go to the Bethesda Farmers’ Market on Sunday mornings to scope out the products and farmers. And I like that farmers’ markets serve as incubators for start-up producers, whether it be baked goods, small farms, pickles, or goat cheese. However, there is a profound lack of organic options.

At the Bethesda Farmers’ Market, of the 14 produce vendors, only five are organic. I cringe at the thought of chemicals being literally dumped onto local acreage polluting the beautiful Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

I visit the Northern Neck of VA frequently. I snapped this picture of a farm that is about a 1/4 mile from the Rappahannock River.

Notice that there is nothing green on all of these acres- not a single weed. How many tons of chemical herbicides were used on this land?

We have a tendency to romanticize the farmer- especially small and local farmers, regardless of whether they’re organic. In a 2012 survey, Whole Foods consumers ranked “local” as more important than “organic.” We feel that our customers prefer organic to local, with the “gold standard” being organic AND local.

My view is that unless a farmer is farming organically, he or she is part of the problem. I’d prefer that chemical farms be as far away from this area as possible.

Posted in environment, food, local food, organic foods, water | Tagged Bethesda Farmers Market, chemical farming, chesapeake bay, farmers markets | 13 Comments

Ignorance is Blistering

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Scott

I recently came across this product and was incredibly relieved to finally find a salt that hasn’t been genetically modified (although, the “pinkness” of this salt makes me wonder if it has been spliced with the genes of salmon)!

This would be funny if this product label were a spoof, but it is real.

There are people in the world who are ignorant, and unfortunately some exist within our industry. Ignorance often leads to fear- and sometimes fear leads to irrational hysteria. If you think this example of salt is extreme, it isn’t. There are many products now that are unnecessarily labeled as “non-GMO.”

An informed person would know that only corn, soy, canola, sugar beets, zucchini and yellow squash, alfalfa, and papaya are grown in the US as GMO. [Add to that list cotton, btw- how many of you are most definitely wearing non-organic GMO cotton right now- and supporting an industry that does more environmental destruction than any farmed edible plant?]

Yet, we are now seeing consumers demand that products that couldn’t possibly be GMO are tested and labeled as non-GMO. Manufacturers are pandering to this and slapping the non-GMO label on everything from lentil pasta to cranberry juice to seaweed. And rather than work to educate consumers on this issue, retailers are demanding that manufacturers of certified organic products also get labeled as non-GMO, even though they know that certified organic = certified GMO-free. And frankly, I’m surprised that the non-GMO Project verified this salt at all (let alone other products that couldn’t possibly be GMO).

This unnecessary labeling is creating consumer confusion and helping to fan the flames of hysteria.

Take, for example, this not-very-unusual email I received from a customer recently. He believes that organic products cannot be trusted and that GMO-free is top priority, even though GMO-free products can be grown with a plethora of toxic chemicals and organic products are already GMO-free:

“I buy the following bulk grains from your store:

1. Organic rolled Oats
2. Organic steel-cut Oats
3. Organic Amaranth
4. Organic Quinoa
5. Organic Mung(Moong) beans
6. Organic Black-eyed peas

Can you email me contact details of Manufacturers of above please?

I will directly contact them to get verified by NON-GMO project.
Please see the website: http://www.nongmoproject.org/

They have a verification process and they have verified more than 15,000 products as NON-GMO.

There is a US law which prohibits GMO content in USDA Organic labeled products. But it is very naive to assume that this law is strictly followed for following reasons:

1. Politicians are bought by election campaign contributions and they keep USDA and FDA under-funded.

2. Because of #1, FDA can not conduct frequent enough inspections to enforce the law. In fact, some organic movement proponents think that USDA do not verify NON-GMO content for Organic products.

3. There is a revolving door between USDA, FDA and GMO businesses like Monsanto. There are definitely conflicts of interest.

4. Big companies are buying out purely organic businesses. Most of these companies have been doing GMO food business for a long time.

For example, Dean Foods has a very bad reputation for using GMO sourced seeds etc.

Earthbound Farm Organic was a very good organic business. They started in earnest and maintained good standards for a long time. They sold out to Whitewave for $600 million in December 2013. Whitewave is a spin-off of Dean Foods. Now I can not trust Earthbound Farm Organic products.

Scott, for above-mentioned reasons it makes perfect sense to use NON-GMO project verified products.

I am paying top dollars for Organic products and I want verified NON-GMO products.

Your business will lose money if you do not stock enough NON-GMO products.”

First of all, of the bulk items this customer is concerned about, NONE of them exist as GMOs.

Secondly, if we strive to be fair, people are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This statement is worrisome: “Earthbound Farm Organic was a very good organic business. They started in earnest and maintained good standards for a long time. They sold out to Whitewave for $600 million in December 2013. Whitewave is a spin-off of Dean Foods. Now I can not trust Earthbound Farm Organic products.” If guilt by association were enough to convict someone of a crime, I’ll bet most of us would be in prison.

Sure, some companies have proven themselves as unethical- and as a result, cannot be trusted. If you don’t want your shopping dollars supporting Dean, then by all means buy Olivia’s salads instead of Earthbound. But, can we really assume that Earthbound Farms is now breaking laws and packing chemical-laden and GMO lettuces (GMO lettuce doesn’t exist, btw) simply because their parent company is looking to profit from the organic industry? I see such tactics and misinformation all the time from fringe groups within our industry.

The science of gene splicing is being terribly misused by large agribusinesses such as Monsanto. At MOM’s we have been demanding for years now that new products which have the potential to be GMOs be verified as non-GMO.

We are most dedicated to organic farming practices. If a manufacturer’s product is certified organic, it gets top priority from us, so we have been phasing out many natural products when there are organic alternatives (in case you’re wondering where the Fage Greek yogurt went!). Organic products get placed prominently on end caps and generally promoted with more shelf space and promotions. MOM’s realizes that certified organic products are far superior to non-organic, GMO-free products. Rather than appease the lowest common denominator which demands GMO-free labeling for products that couldn’t possibly be GMO, we work to educate consumers that an organic product is a non-GMO product, but without the chemicals.

Posted in food, GMOs, organic foods | Tagged food labels, GMOs, himalania rock pink salt, hysteria, misinformation, non-GMO certified, non-GMO labeling, non-GMOs, organic food, organic foods, The non-GMO project | 14 Comments

Minimum Dignity

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Scott

One of the companies I admire most is Costco. They’re not very environmental, unfortunately, but they are extremely dedicated to their employees. Back in 2008 when the economy was in a downward spiral, Founder and CEO Jim Sinegal said that instead of looking for ways to cut costs and reduce compensation like most companies were doing, it was especially important to find ways of supporting their staff in this time of hardship. He said, “our employees… deserve our loyalty. They needed it just as much [in 2008] as they ever did, or more.” Costco’s average pay rate is $21 per hour, while BJ’s average is $11 and Sam’s Club’s $12. However, Costco is the performance leader in the club membership retail sector.

MOM’s Employees touring a recycling facility

Here at MOM’s, we’ve never paid minimum wage. In June of 2011, MOM’s raised our minimum wage from $9 per hour to $10. This month, we will raise it to $11 per hour.

This is not an act of charity, but rather an investment. Without a doubt, our most valuable asset here at MOM’s is our people. Paying them more is a smart business strategy. Any good businessman knows there is no higher ROI (return on investment) than investing in people. Great people are more efficient, have good ideas, and have good judgment. Customers love shopping at places with good employees. I’d rather have 1 great than 3 decent employees.

Raising the minimum wage would also raise the “status” of retail jobs, making them more viable as a career choice rather than short-term or a necessity. But raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do for so many other reasons:

There is the issue of fairness. A parent with 2 kids who works full time at the minimum wage lives below the poverty line. For all of the complaining people do about those who don’t pull their own weight, it is hypocritical of such people to oppose raising full time workers above the poverty line.
Similar to a child who struggles in school because he has a tough home life, I believe that when people are stressed in their personal lives, it negatively impacts their work performance. Raising the minimum wage will improve worker performance unilaterally, as basic needs are met.
The existing minimum wage leads to corporate welfare. Large retailers like Walmart and McDonald’s pay minimum wage. Many of their employees, even though they’re working full time, are on government assistance programs. Basically, the entitlement programs that people complain so much about subsidize the low-paid employees of large corporations. If you want to shrink the government, make the corporations pay a fair wage. For example, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will reduce between 3.3 and 3.8 million people from enrolling in the tax payer funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Other public programs such as Medicaid, EITC, and TANF would be similarly affected.
Paying the low and lower-middle class a higher wage will immediately help the economy. If you give more money to rich people, they’re not going to spend it. They’ll horde it. When money lands in the hands of minimum wage earners, consumption immediately increases. As they say, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
I read a great quote recently from a CEO of a company- “For CEOs to take credit for job creation is like a squirrel taking credit for evolution.” I won’t hire anyone unless people buy our product. The consumer is solely responsible for job creation. Contrary to what many CEOs in opposition are claiming, raising the minimum wage will actually create jobs, not cut them.

$11 an hour is just the next step for us here at MOM’s- and as we continue to improve our workforce, we will continue to raise wages even higher.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine perfectly outlines the case for raising the minimum wage (and at 2:56, mentions MOM’s!).

When I started MOM’s almost 27 years ago, I used to think that I could do everything the best and that the handful of employees I had were there to simply take instructions and do what I say. This past decade or so, I’ve come realize that not only was I wrong about that, but that I play a rather insignificant part in MOM’s success.

The people here at MOM’s have accomplished great things. They’re smart, dedicated, and they move MOM’s forward, helping to accomplish our Purpose to protect and restore the environment. They have taught me to have great faith in people and to understand their value.

Posted in business, MOM's Organic Market | Tagged economy, entitlement programs, fairness, government subsidies, minimum wage, MOM's Organic Market, tim kaine | 19 Comments

Save the Dandelions

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Scott

Society evolves, albeit sometimes slowly. I am 49 years old. There are things happening now that I would not have predicted when I was young. Aside from the fact that gasoline is unleaded, DDT is banned, and there is more truth in advertising (cigarettes were once advertised as being good for us), we have a black President. Gays can marry. Whole Foods and Tesla are darlings of Wall Street. When I fly towards the west or go hiking in Maine, I see huge wind farms. Healthcare is finally available to all.

At the beginning of all of these movements are a select few of deemed “radicals,” people with courage and foresight to challenge the status quo. I feel like I’ve been surrounded by such people my entire life. My parents thought rather radically and associated with like-minded people.

I’ve been sensing an upswell of radical opposition to, of all things, lawns. I blogged about the topic a couple of years ago here and here.

When hurricane Isabel roared through the DC region back in 2003, over a dozen large trees fell in my wooded yard. The lot was already somewhat of a mess with invasive English ivy smothering everything. The previous owners planted bramble everywhere.

I had a minuscule lawn and 2 kids with 1 on the way. I decided it was time to clear it all out (leaving the existing trees) and put down grass seed to hold the ground. In the spring we spread seed and hay and I naively called a lawn care company to get my lawn started. I signed a contract for a year’s service. Sometime in June, after a few “applications” and some rainfall, I walked out onto my patio and slipped and fell. There was algae growing everywhere. My grass was turning dark green.

I realized then that I’d been paying for a plethora of unneeded chemical applications that were hurting the environment. I never put anything on my lawn ever again, and I started to take notice of the industry and our assumptions about lawns in general. I cringe when I see those little signs on yards telling us that’s chemicals have been applied.

Maybe lawns are important to so many because they’re seen as status symbols, similar to what seems like other affluent suburban anxieties over who drives the most luxurious car, who lives in the biggest house, where our kids go to college, what top sports league our kids play in, even what fancy breed of dog we walk. Regardless, the world would be better off if certain industries were to go bankrupt. I’m adding lawn care to that list.

MOM’s is taking action this month as we launch our Save the Dandelions campaign to educate people about the impact of chemical lawns. From March 15-23, we will collect any unwanted lawn chemicals from customers and safely dispose of them; we will be educating our customers about the negative environmental impacts of lawn chemicals; and we will launch an advertising campaign to shift public perception towards embracing imperfect, natural yards. Save the Dandelions!

Posted in environment, home, Lawn, water | Tagged algae, chemicals, Chesapeake Watershed, dead zones, fertilizers, lawn care, Save the Dandelions | 7 Comments

Why is Walmart so expensive?

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Scott

In my eternal scan of the Internet for MOM’s data and feedback, I came across this blogger’s post: Why is MOM’s Organic Market so expensive? I hear this question in one form or another all the time. If you read reviews of MOM’s on Yelp, Google, etc., there is always someone who gives us a low rating because we’re “too expensive.” For example, “The staff is very friendly and helpful, but the prices are a little high,” and “If you’re into paying high prices for their so-called organic food, then come here. It’s been proven that organic foods are not as healthy as regular food, cannot be proven to be organic, and they don’t taste better. So convince yourself in believing in the organic hype and shop here. My rating would be lower except they do have a lot of produce, even if it’s overpriced hype.”

MOM’s has a price guarantee, which states that on all same-branded packaged products, we will cost the same or less than Whole Foods and other natural foods stores. A couple of years ago, Consumer Checkbook did a 3rd party survey of our prices and found us to be 7% less than Whole Foods and 4% less than Wegman’s. Our own internal data now even shows us to be approximately 10% less than Whole Foods. So I believe that when people say that we are expensive, for the most part they’re saying that organic foods are expensive, not MOM’s in particular (or they’re misinformed, because sometimes they do claim we’re more expensive than Whole Foods or Wegman’s).

Rather than ask why is MOM’s expensive, I think we should ask why are Walmart, Safeway, etc. so expensive?

Take for example, a headline that came across my computer last week:

I realize that the 2 chemicals banned aren’t used specifically for food production (they’re being used to control mosquitoes), but it’s one example of the many hidden costs of what are assumed to be “solutions” to problems.

A friend of mine drove the Eastern Shore last weekend touring the local oyster farming industry. He ran into some poultry farmers while he was down there, and they are up in arms over the new proposed Poultry Fair Share Act, which will charge tax to large chicken suppliers of 5 cents per chicken. The tax will be paid to the Bay Restoration Fund and used to fund cover crop programs on lands where chicken manure was applied, i.e. to clean up the havoc that the poultry industry constantly wreaks on the Chesapeake’s ecosystem. Since the industry won’t spend the money to clean up after its own mess, the government is forced to step in and do it for them.

Using chemicals to grow non-organic food hastens climate change. The carbon footprint of fertilizer production and delivery is substantial, estimated at over 1,200 million metric tons per year in the US alone. As weather patterns become more severe and unexpected (hurricanes, droughts, flooding), there is a large cost in many categories, including crop losses and infrastructure damage.

Pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics are currently used on 99% of American farmland. These chemicals contaminate our waterways, often impacting other industries (like crabs and oysters here in the Chesapeake). Inevitably, environmental groups, other industries, and taxpayers are left holding the bill to clean up the mess.

Entire species can become threatened, as has recently happened with honeybee and Monarch Butterfly populations. Honeybee CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is thought to be linked to the traces of pesticides in high-fructose corn syrup. Sharp decreases in Monarch Butterfly populations are being linked to GMOs. This has cost the honey industry and farmers billions of dollars in loss production due to pollination deficiencies.

Along with the decades of increases in carcinogenic chemical residues in our food, cancer rates have increased. Not only does this lead to human suffering, but the medical costs make insurance rates higher for us all.

Conventional foods often have high-calorie, nutrient-deficient ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and white flour. Obesity rates have risen dramatically from 13% to 35% since 1960, which leads to more cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The estimated costs to the healthcare system of these ailments are $190 billion annually.

The conventional industry receives massive amounts of government subsidies (corporate welfare) while the organic industry receives virtually nothing. The new Farm Bill allots taxpayers to pay out $956 billion over the next ten years to highly profitable agribusiness such as Tyson, Monsanto, and Cargill. We taxpayers are subsidizing them to do the wrong thing.

Corporate America will forever work its hardest to keep Big Government off their backs, but who’s going to keep Big Corporations off our backs? It would be nice if the free market would fix this- and if average consumers were informed enough to consider the hidden costs of products and shop accordingly. But this isn’t going to happen any time soon, if ever (especially considering the constant bombardment of misinformation put out by large corporations).

The burden to society caused by conventional farming is constantly deferred to other industries, citizens, taxpayers, and non-profits. The lower price of conventional foods reflects these deferred hidden costs. Those who buy conventional foods over organics because they’re cheaper, selfishly do so- happy to kick the can down the road to those of us who keep informed, continue to recognize hidden costs, and keep doing the next right thing.

Posted in environment, food, GMOs, MOM's Organic Market, organic foods | Tagged agri-business, big corporations, cancer, carbon emissions, chesapeake bay, colony collapse disorder, conventional agriculture, conventional farming, corporate america, Farm bill, honeybees, monarch butterflies, obesity, organic food, organic foods, pesticides, poultry fair share act, subsidies | 12 Comments