Organic — this way. I was proud of the airport. Over the years, JFK has picked up its food service, starting with the Jet Blue terminal, and now even into Delta, which unfortunately hasn’t changed its shoddy service. Still, at least my wait was more pleasurable. The first kiosk café, which featured coconut juice and raw food bars, had plenty of organic sandwiches; only none were vegetarian, which I found ironic. The cashier looked at me like I was from Tramalfador when I inquired, so I paid three bucks for a Vita Coco and continued on my quest.

Then, the sign, for “fresh meadows” or something like that. The store featured organic sandwiches and salads, the sign told me, and I figured something for us herbivores existed there. Nada. I settled for a four-cheese and tomato panini (that was microwaved instead of pressed) at an Italian spot, and decided a cup of tea would finish what had turned into a soggy meal. I returned to the fresh meadow and ordered a cup of sencha.

The kicker: Styrofoam. I twittered the information to Facebook and immediately a slew of comments joined mine from friends, all not surprised at this total lack of comprehension of what the idea of organic actually means. For those of us who take “organic” seriously, it involves a sense of communion with the world, not a catchphrase sold at Wal-Mart. I’m happy that chains and airports are stepping it up, but only at the rallying cry of consumer demand — people stop buying, they stop stocking. I know the ground rules, and am not romanticizing the notion that pesticides will one day cease to exist. Still, Styrofoam cups?

A few weeks before, my fiancée and I were strolling around our Park Slope neighborhood, and came across a lemonade stand. An organic one, mind you, with a man in his forties overseeing the very commendable business. The lemonade itself was delicious, not too sweet, served in recycled and compostable corn-based plastic cups. (Finally, a use of the over-subsidized kernel that won’t help cause diabetes!) I returned recently, lamenting over the Styrofoam conundrum to him. He set me at least somewhat straight: a former food industry worker and chef, he told me how heat sensitive these recyclable cups are, and that for a large company to use them, temperature control in the storage room would be crucial, which is an unnecessary expense most businesses would not even consider.

What happened to the triple bottom line that was being proudly displayed a few years ago? I became further discouraged while reading John Abramson’s book, Overdo$ed America, finding out that in a survey of “overall health” — as provided by our health care system — America ranks 72nd in the world. How does that happen in a country considered to be one of the leading countries in scientific advancements? A question I do not need to really ask: it’s the organic tea in the Styrofoam cup, offering the appearance of health at the cost of maximizing profits.

As Abramson returns to again and again, when you live in a culture that markets pharmaceuticals like shampoo and cars, and the drug companies’ goals are to sell product and not to heal people, there could only be more pain and suffering, which is exactly where we find ourselves today: with excess health care expenditures, in the year 2004 alone, of $530 billion. I’m guessing that number has not declined much in a half-decade. Abramson wants a healthy lifestyle — regular exercise, healthy eating, no more smoking: such basic knowledge, really — to be promoted instead of direct-to-consumer ads by corporations pimping pills with more side effects than curative properties. We should want that too.

This morning I saw that Obama’s approval rating had dropped a few points. This did not surprise me, considering the savior-like pedestal with which Americans placed him not even one year ago. We have someone who is trying to fix a desperately broken system, and the ideas cannot move past the political floors because “leaders” are more concerned with private interests than finally approving universal health care — a reality, as Abramson points out, that is a basic right to citizens in numerous other nations. At this point, no one person or party is going to step in and fix things. That’s a task every one of us is called to do. Whether or not we want the responsibility, it’s ours to live up to, and the healing happens when we overlook the large print in flashing lights and read the small. The truth resides inside the fine print, as those are words we need to understand.