San Francisco Herb & Natural Food co. San Francisco Herb, Barry Melzer,www.herbspicetea.com Selling teas and products with rat poop and urine Fremont, California

Character assasination is bad enough, but it is especially horrid when done by the ignorant and mean-spirited, who cannot even correctly spell the proprietor's name.

I had a long and satisfying history of dealing with Barry Meltzer and the San Francisco Herb and Natural Food Co.  In fact, I recall starting to buy their uniquely healthy and healing herbal formulas, when they were still a store front on Geary Street in San Francisco, during the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene, a relationship that continued for more than 40 years, with never a disappointment.

I also had occasion to speak with Barry and share with him our mutual love for herbs and natural healing.  His honesty, reputation for fair dealing, and concern for the well-being of his customers will survive the hysterical accusations in this so-called ripoff report.

I can assure you from my own long experience with the purity and cleanliness of the products that I purchased, that the baseless innuendo ("apparently" X 2) in this report serves only to cloud the truth, not to support it.  Certainly, SFHNFC could probably have better handled the rabid regulators and reporters who descended upon them.  But to ascribe sinister intent, deception and disregard of their customers' welfare is to merely spread poisonous invective and falsehood.

Definitely, the loss to the public from the demise of this outstanding company is greater than any public health infraction that may have arisen at their Fremont warehouse.