General Hospital

I don’t think we’ll see organic food on flights anytime soon.  Well, of course we don’t see food on flights period.  But if you’re in Northern California and happen to get sick, you may feel better about having a Kaiser Permanente card.  So say good-bye to those canned green beans and mysterious gelatin desserts!

Kaiser is going organic.  The HMO is buying more produce from organic produce, its employees can go to farmers markets at its facilities or have fruits and vegetables delivered to their desks, and administrators are spending more time with farmers.  Farmers in turn are realizing the buying power of large hospital networks and will plant what Kaiser and other companies want.

To me this is another step in getting away from industrial food full of hormones and pesticides, and becoming a more healthy society in the process.  Pesticides are attributed to all sorts of health problems, including decreased immunity.  So why not serve the healthiest food when you’re at your most vulnerable moments?

I remember when Ara’s father got sick a couple years ago.  The hospital was depressing enough; the food looked absolutely revolting.  Ara ended up taking his mother and aunt to a Koreatown restaurant just so they didn’t have to suffer that awful cafeteria again.  These poor patients were suffering—and the food delivered on those horrible plastic trays sure did not help much to lift their spirits.

This is not a seamless transition:  hospitals are often locked into costly vendor contracts, local food regulations are often restrictive and punitive, and at a macro level, organic products are expensive.  Meanwhile, farmers in rural San Mateo County ship most of their crops to Europe because all those Northern Californians can’t eat all those Brussel sprouts . . . but farmers have no choice cause they need to grow what they can sell.

Imagine being stuck in a hospital for a few days and actually looking forward to your meal!  It may be happening at an HMO near you . . .