The salt industry and the food companies it supplies are fighting back hard -- both overtly and behind the scenes -- to combat the message that the ingredient is unhealthy. Food Network star Alton Brown promotes the mineral in video called "Salt 101" as the "finest compound to ever grace our palate" and claims there are more than 14,000 good uses for it, as an example of the visible campaign. Michael Moss writes that one of the industry's behind-the-scenes tactics is to blame consumers for resisting efforts to reduce salt in all foods. In a …

Consumers are drinking less beer -- shipments are down 4% -- and the recession is a major cause of the slide, according to MillerCoors CMO Andy England. He points to the high unemployment figures among 21- to 35-year-old men who are the primary targets of beer companies; the Hispanic market has also been hard hit. "I've never seen so much red ink on a spreadsheet in all my years in this business," says Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily. Jeremy Mullman lays out new summer campaigns from MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch for their light brands and …

As recently as late January, Ford CEO Alan Mulally was talking about the strong base of its Mercury brand and how its extra features appealed to younger buyers. That may not be enough to save the line, which has been around since 1939. Reports are surfacing that the board next month will be presented with a plan to discontinue Mercury, James R. Healey writes. Although he could not confirm a story that broke in Bloomberg News, Healy points out that the brand accounted for just 5.3% of Ford Motor's total U.S. sales the first four months this year. For …