The new guest poster on the NYT "Freakonomics" blog is none other than Suzanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History, the book that takes a look at what we mean when we say we want "fresh" food (hint: it's not always what we think we mean, and it's not what we meant by the word fifty years ago). Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner kicks things off with a Q&A with Freidberg, and then it's on to her first post, on "urban food deserts" -- at last count, three million New Yorkers live in neighborhoods with little or no access to fresh food, says the city's planning department. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Freidberg -- just look at Hong Kong.
Fresh: A Perishable History is out in April; this post happily gives me an excuse to post its exquisite cover art, which features an illustration from an actual California orange crate label, and which in its physical incarnation is even "orange-er" than it appears here on screen. Maybe you're thinking what we're thinking, which is that in better economic times a book like this verily cries out for that old favorite ... scratch 'n' sniff!