Cutting Back on Salt Could Will Save Lives
25.01.10
(Earlier this month, the Bloomberg administration announced a new initiative aimed at encouraging food processors and restaurant in New York and across the country. to cut back on the amount of salt in the foods they sell. This is the first of two commentaries on the move. Another, opposing the plan, will appear tomorrow.)
The National Salt Reduction Initiative , a New York City-led partnership of cities, states and national health organizations, has announced its proposed targets for a voluntary reduction of salt (sodium) levels in packaged and restaurant foods. The goal of the initiative is to reduce the salt in packaged and restaurant foods by 25 percent over five years -- an achievement that would reduce the nation’s salt intake by 20 percent and prevent many thousands of premature deaths as well as countless hospitalizations for people with heart and kidney disease. Success would translate into major public health benefits in the U.S.
The sodium in salt is a major contributor to high blood pressure, which causes heart attacks and strokes, the leading causes of preventable death in the U.S. and, arguably, the world. Every year, heart attacks and strokes cause an estimated 23,000 deaths in New York City, more than 800,000 deaths nationwide, and cost Americans billions in healthcare expenses.
Source: Gotham Gazette
John Morrell & Co.: A timeline
20.01.10
Significant events in John Morrell's history in Sioux City.
1972: Floyd Valley Packing in the Stockyards
merged with United Packing of Iowa, Inc., and formed Iowa Meat
Processing Company as a pork-processing division.
1986: John Morrell & Co. acquired Iowa Meat
Processing shortly before Floyd Valley closed. The Morrell plant
was built in 1957 for Sioux City Dressed Pork.
1987: 800 members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 1142, along with 2,500 union members at
the Sioux Falls plant, go on strike over wage concession demands.
The strike resulted in numerous negotiations, plus scuffles on the
picket line, arrests and other disturbances.
February 1988: UFCW ends the 11-month-old
strike at the Sioux City plant, making an unconditional offer to
return to work. They worked without a contract until 1991.
September 1993: Chiquita Brands International
of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of John Morrell, announced the packing
plant will close by mid-December, throwing 1,300 people out of
work. The closing would mean the loss of about 1,200 hourly and 100
management jobs.
Source: Sioux City Journal