We are a community of thoughtful, progressive, hard working people. We are diverse. We strive to understand and learn from our differences. We respect unusual ideas. We value teamwork and take pride in the result of our efforts. We want to restore the environment, and a lot of our efforts are pointed directly at that goal.
Our Maryland stores: Rockville, College Park, Jessup, Frederick, Bowie, Timonium, and Waldorf. Our Virginia stores: Alexandria, Herndon, and Merrifield. Our Pennsylvania store: Bryn Mawr. Our Washington, D.C. store: Ivy City. Please visit us at MOMsOrganicMarket.com for more information about our organic, gluten-free or vegan food and supplements.
We’re obsessed with selecting the best-tasting, most beautiful 100% organic produce available. We work with local farms to provide many regional favorites. We have a huge selection of gluten-free ingredients and goodies, tons of local and organic foods of all kinds, and clean, organic meats. We’re crazy about our incredible variety of health supplements, herbs, plant-based cosmetics and body care products. Raw foods and vegan foods are also near & dear to us. We make sure our prices are the best available in any area natural foods store.
Additionally, we opened Mighty Healthy Pet in 2008, a natural product store for pets, in College Park. Our specialty is whole, organic, raw foods for pets, as well as environmentally-friendly supplies & toys for pets.
We provide a reusable bag incentive for each bag used at check-out so don’t forget to bring a bunch of reusable bags!
MOM’s banned bottled water in 2009 as part of our Plastic Surgery campaign to reduce plastic in our stores. Instead, we provide free water: Santevia filtered water in a compostable cup at our customer service desks, or a free gallon of reverse-osmosis water in your own container on each visit (39 cents per gallon for additional gallons).
In addition to banning bottled water, our Plastic Surgery campaign inspired us to replace all sample cups, spoons, forks, coffee cups, straws, napkins, trash bags and produce bags with compostable versions. We urge our suppliers and neighbor-businesses to reduce their plastic use as well.
As of late 2011, we also Terrapass Your Gas, by collecting zip codes from willing customers we were able to determine average distances our customers travel, and purchase credits to cover those distances. Join us in furthering our environmental stewardship just by shopping at MOMs!
If you’ve shopped at MOMs, you probably already know that we’re wind-powered, sell only sustainable seafood, and we compost or recycle almost everything. But, you may not know that we provide a ton of Green benefits to our employees, including hybrid car purchase incentives, subsidy for Energy Star appliances, and a Green Household package.
Undoubtedly the most important thing we do, both for our customers and for the environment, is to offer a huge array of certified organic products at reasonable prices. Purchasing organic products helps ensure that organic farm programs thrive and grow all over the world, as well as in our own region, and it reduces the amount of pesticides and chemicals used on farms. You will never find a chemically-treated veggie in our produce section.
Here’s a little more info on the history of MOMs. If you’d like to know more about MOMs, feel free to email CustomerService @ MOMsOrganicMarket dot com.
MOM's Organic Market Blog 
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Will you consider opening a MOM’s at the Rotunda in Baltimore? The Giant that has been there forever is moving a couple of blocks away and the developer says they’re planning to attract a “boutique grocery store.” Trader Joe’s comes to mind, but the word is that they aren’t interested (or it isn’t in their “business plan”). Believe me, you’d have TONS of customers — centrally located in the city, prime location in a very hip part of town. What do you think?????
If you had any second thoughts about going to LED lighting, after reading yesterday’s article in the Washington Post (about how expensive the 60W-equivalent 10W LED bulb is), please note that their calculation of the relative cost of ownership over ten years assumed that you could buy electricity at $0.01 per kWh. According to MY bill, I’m paying $0.146 per kWh. It makes a wee bit of difference… Their error denies the LED bulb a $200 advantage.
Hi. The US EU organic trade agreement is now in effect! We will put this out on Monday, although the agreement took effect yesterday. Thanks!
Streamlined Trade of Organic Products between United States and European Union Begins
WASHINGTON, Jun. 4, 2012—The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that organic products certified in the United States or European Union may now be sold as organic in either market, as trade opened up on Friday, June 1, under a new U.S.-EU equivalency partnership. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan signed formal letters creating the partnership in February, along with Dacian Cioloş, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, and Ambassador Isi Siddiqui, U.S. Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator.
“This partnership will open new markets for American farmers and ranchers, create more opportunities for small businesses, and result in good jobs for Americans who package, ship, and market organic products,” said Merrigan. “In the months ahead, USDA will continue to work hard to expand opportunities for all U.S. products, including organics. Equivalency arrangements such as this are critical to growing the U.S. organics industry—they require careful negotiation to ensure that we maintain existing U.S. trade policies while ensuring that U.S. agricultural products will compete on a level playing field in world markets.”
The United States signed a similar partnership with Canada in July 2009, and additional equivalency arrangement conversations have begun with South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Previously, producers and companies wanting to trade products on both sides of the Atlantic had to obtain separate certifications to two standards, which resulted in a double set of fees, inspections, and paperwork. The partnership existing now eliminates these significant barriers, which is especially helpful for small and medium-sized organic farmers. During negotiations, both parties conducted thorough on-site audits to ensure that their programs’ regulations, quality control measures, certification requirements, and labeling practices were compatible.
“This agreement provides economic opportunities for certified organic farmers as well as additional incentives for prospective farmers,” said Miles McEvoy, National Organic Program Deputy Administrator. “We look forward to working with our European Union counterparts to support organic agriculture.”
Although there are slight differences between the United States and European Union organic standards, both parties individually determined that their programs were equivalent, thereby allowing the agreement that opened up trade today. The exception has to do with prohibition on the use of antibiotics. USDA organic regulations prohibit the use of antibiotics except to control invasive bacterial infections (fire blight) in organic apple and pear orchards. The European Union organic regulations allow antibiotics only to treat infected animals. For all products traded under this partnership, certifying agents must verify that antibiotics are not used for any reason.
The United States and the European Union will continue to have regular discussions and review each other’s programs periodically to verify that the terms of the partnership are being met. Later this year, representatives from both markets will compare the USDA organic wine standards to the recently published European Union wine standards and determine how wine can fit into the trade partnership. In the interim, traded wine must meet the production and labeling requirements of the destination market.
The arrangement covers products exported from and certified in the United States or the European Union only. All products traded under the partnership must be shipped with an organic import certificate, which shows the location where production occurred, identifies the organization that certified the organic product, and verifies that growers and handlers did not use prohibited substances and methods. In addition to certifying that the terms of the partnership were met, the certificates also allow traded products to be tracked. Both parties are committed to ensuring that products traded under the agreement retain their organic integrity from farm to market. The European Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the USDA National Organic Program—which oversees all U.S. organic products—will take on key oversight roles.
Estimates show the market for U.S. organics sales to the EU could grow substantially within the first few years of this arrangement. Today, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumers buy organic products at least occasionally, and 28 percent buy organic products weekly.
Under President Obama, USDA has continued to expand markets for American goods abroad, worked aggressively to break down barriers to trade, and assisted U.S. businesses with the resources needed to reach consumers around the world. U.S. agriculture is currently experiencing one of its best periods in history thanks to the productivity and resourcefulness of our producers. Overall, American agriculture supports 1 in 12 jobs in the United States and provides American consumers with 83 percent of the food we consume, while maintaining affordability and choice. Strong agricultural exports contribute to a positive U.S. trade balance, create jobs, boost economic growth and support President Obama’s National Export Initiative goal of doubling all U.S. exports by the end of 2014.
For additional details on the trade partnership, please visit http://www.ams.usda.gov/NOPTradeEuropeanUnion or contact the National Organic Program at (202) 720-3252. The National Organic Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture facilitates trade and ensures integrity of organic agricultural products by consistently implementing the organic standards and enforcing compliance with the regulations.
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Hey, I’m a regular shopper at mom’s, and love everything about the groceries. One concern I have is that Mom’s frequently brings bell peppers from Israel, which is an apartheid state. What’s up with that?
I have been boycotting Israeli bell peppers, and waiting hopefully until they come from elsewhere.
Thank you for your devotion to life, and all its beautiful bounty. Thank you for your wisdom, ideas, inspiration. I don’t know you, but I love you. MOM’s rock!