Food and Drug Administration

GMO Labeling: Looking to the Future Post-Prop. 37

Despite Prop. 37's Defeat, the Fight for GMO Labeling Soldiers On

Proposition 37, the California initiative to label genetically modified food, was defeated last night with a 53% majority vote against the proposed labeling law. But just because this battle was lost, those behind the Yes on 37 campaign say the war is far from over. The group is focusing on the 4.3 ... More >>

Telemarketers Checking on Your Birth Control

That static-y voice blurting out from the receiver was easy enough to identify as a telemarketer. The instinct to hang up was temporarily suspended as the disembodied voice inquired about my use of birth control, specifically whether or not I'd ever used Yaz, Yasmin, Oscella, or the Nuvaring. T ... More >>

Smoking Medical Marijuana Helps MS Patients, Study Says

A common critique of medical cannabis is that there's no way anything "smoked" can be beneficial to someone of ill health. This simple and convenient theory -- smoking (tobacco) is bad, therefore anything that can be smoked must also be bad -- was recently repeated by former White House drug czar Jo ... More >>

Woman Sues Muscle Milk, Claims It's as Fatty as Krispy Kreme

The problem with Muscle Milk is that it tastes really good (applies more to the carton version than the powdered version). Sure, it's a satisfying reward after a tough workout, possibly instilling a kind of Pavlovian mechanism that increases the desire to pump iron. But more than that, it tastes soo ... More >>

Marijuana Sobriety Checkpoints: New Legislation to Outlaw Driving While Stoned

​Some will swear that marijuana has merit for motorists. Others fear impairment of any kind, at any level. We're pretty terrified of teen drivers, especially those with cell phones and hangovers, but we'll leave it to the government to intervene on this great debate. Driving while stoned would bec ... More >>

Feds Dismiss Medical Marijuana Lawsuits Without Hearings "Because They Know They're Wrong"

​Medical Marijuana Fight May End Up At Supreme Court ... By The Time We Are All Really Old.San Francisco attorney Matthew Kumin was defeated this week, when his lawsuit that challenged the feds' recent crackdown on state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries was dismissed by a federal judge in Sacr ... More >>

If You Want to Combat Corporate Lobbying, You Have to Put Up Your Dukes

​If you read the food media, especially in large cities, you'd believe that the sustainable food revolution is winning. But if you talk to a state senator or member of Congress, writes public-health advocate Michelle Simon, they'll assure you that the food-industry lobbyists are still the ones wit ... More >>

Trent Arsenault, FDA-Targeted Sperm Donor, Moonlights as Online Porn Star

Trent Arsenault, pictured on one of his websites​We told you a few days ago about Trent Arsenault, the one-man sperm factory whose antics have been targeted as unsound by the Food and Drug Administration. Arsenault, a Silicon Valley tech worker, has set up a website in order to donate his semen to ... More >>

Hey Food Activists: Can We Get a Ban on GMOs and BGH?

PCC Farmland Trust​California's food activists are on the verge of gaining a ban on the import of shark fins. And starting next July, sale of foie gras in this state will be illegal. We care about animal welfare here; we passed a law regulating the size of chickens' cages. But perhaps becaus ... More >>

Hey FDA: Pick On Big Food Producers, Not Little Ones

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles TimesDanielle Fetzer and Steven Pociunas, volunteers at Rawesome Foods in Venice, after the store was raided​After a year-long investigation, agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration joined state and local authorities yesterday to bust owners of a small Venic ... More >>

Eric Quezada, Former Supervisor Candidate, Seeks Alternative Cancer Treatment in Germany

Eric Quezada is fighting cancer overseas. ​Looking at Eric Quezada's career over the last couple years, you certainly wouldn't have guessed he'd been fighting cancer since 2004. The long-time Mission activist and executive director with Dolores Street Community Services ran a failed campaign for s ... More >>

Limitless: Pill Makes You Smart, Movie Makes You Dumb

Bouncer: Switching Off Reason at Olive's Happy Hour

Bouncer Ponders Pharmaceutical Escapes at Olive's Happy Hour

​The best bars in S.F. don't have to try too hard. Olive is small and artfully arrayed, like a hipster Munchkin. Bright, abstract paintings line the walls. The proprietor has put a lot of DIY love into the place, and made sure to hire friendly staffers. No fewer than three of them approached me wh ... More >>

Getting a Taste of PDX During SFBW

NorthwestBeerGuide/FlickrOut-of-towner: Deschutes' The Dissident.​Bridgetown, aka Beervana, aka Portland has much to brag about when it comes to beer culture, but it doesn't yet have a Portland Beer Week (with stress on the "yet"). So some of Oregon's savvier breweries put some flowers in thei ... More >>

Eat a Goddamn Carrot, Go to Fresno, Save a Fish

​SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats. • The Onion has this amazing video up of what the FDA could be like if they were honest. You just buy a bag of fucking carrots and you eat them the way you'd normally eat a package of hot dogs, okay? Watch: • ... More >>

Female Condom 2 Campaign to Launch in San Francisco for Women and Gay Men

Just slip it in. ​The Female Condom 2 is coming soon to San Francisco to line a vagina -- or anus -- near you. The Department of Public Health will be launching a campaign to promote the use of the Female Condom 2 (known as the FC2 for short) on Valentine's Day.The city received a $100,000 grant f ... More >>

UCSF Researchers Believe They Have Found a Drug To Cure Alcoholism

Curing Alcoholism ​Leave it to Americans to try to cure alcoholism with a pill. UCSF researchers believe a muscle relaxant already out on the market can drastically reduce the urge to binge drink.Researchers from UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic used drunk rats to prove their hypothesis. They studied t ... More >>

TSA Scanners: U.C. San Francisco Radiologists Debunk Radiation Fears

Calm down, people...​Update 12/3: TSA slaps us on the wrist about using this picture. This is an old image. The newer ones look more like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Among the elements of paranoia and righteousness emanating from those opting out of TSA scans today, U.C. San Francisco radiology specia ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Our weekly roundup of SFoodie news

Tobacco Leaves Popping Up on Lafitte's Menu

Heirloom Connecticut broadleaf tobacco leaves from Happy Quail Farms.​San Francisco's tobacco lovers can finally get their nicotine fix without offending their neighbors or destroying their lungs ― and I'm not talking about those ridiculous electronic cigarettes. Uncured heirloom tobacco is ... More >>

Woman Named Skye Sues Ben & Jerry's Over 'All Natural' Claim

You lying bastards...​A wholesome food warrior named Skye is suing Ben & Jerry's for claiming its ice cream is "All Natural" on the label, when in fact -- horror of horrors -- ingredient No. 36 is alkalized cocoa. We feel tricked by those Vermont cows who subtly imparted in their placid, bovin ... More >>

Bad Eggs Didn't Cause Salmonella Spike in San Francisco

Yep, it's a bad egg​Wednesday's massive recall of 380 million potentially tainted eggs -- more than one for every American -- likely induced more hurling of eggs than any past Halloween and more worries about salmonella than those of every turtle-owning parent of all-time. Yes, you should dispose ... More >>

This Week in Food Bloggery

peter_r/FlickrBruce Hill's margherita, coming to a neighborhood slightly nearer you.​Highlights from the blogs this week:1. The imminent arrival of yet another wave of pizzerias ― Zero Zero, Ragazza, Una Pizza Napoletana, Antica Pizzeria Napoletana, not to mention something from ex-Flour Water ... More >>

Trader Joe's Private-Label Revelations More Complicated Than We Thought

Shannon I./YelpMystery solved?​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. In Doggy Bag last week, we pointed to an investigative post at The Faster Times, wherein Earth Island Journal managing editor Amy Westervelt looked behind some private label products at Trader Joe's and found some surprising ... More >>

Wall Street Journal Planning Lance Armstrong Doping Bombshell

Might this affect Lance's concentration?​The Wall Street Journal, which for a week has been rumored to be preparing a Game of Shadows-style story detailing doping allegations against seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, announced in Friday's paper that it plans to release just such ... More >>

Sparks Outlawed? Now You Can Make It at Home

Back in December 2008, MillerCoors voluntarily removed caffeine, taurine, guarana, and ginseng from energy drink Sparks, due in part to pressure from San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera. Hipsters everywhere lost their collective shit. The overly sweet malt liquor/energy drink hybrid saturated ... More >>

In Praise of Imposter Lobster in South City

T. PalmerNot lobster, but not half bad either.​Cruising the El and hankering for something cheap 'n fried, SFoodie made a guilty pleasure pit stop at Long John Silver's (1111 El Camino Real at Del Paso, South San Francisco) for some fish and chips and hush puppies. Inside the spot (which doubles a ... More >>

Is That a Frog in Your Throat or Are You Just Gagging?

Mmm, froggy.​According to a CNN report today, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs has concluded that the foreign matter in a man's can of Diet Pepsi appears to have been a frog or a toad. Gulp. In July, Fred DeNegri of Ormond Beach, Florida, started gagging after he t ... More >>

Camel Milk Chocolates? You Might Soon be Able to Score Some in Noe Valley

A Noe Valley shop hopes to be among the first U.S. retailers to sell chocolate bars made with camel milk. Jack Epstein, owner of Chocolate Covered (4069 24th St. at Castro), told SFoodie he only recently found out about the camel milk chocolate bars, manufactured by Dubai-based chocolatier Al Nass ... More >>

Like Blogs, Only Paperier

New Sandwiches at Boccalone

Just like the toasted panini I used to eat in Rome--except the Acme-baked bread is better.

USF Realizes Its Student Insurance Covered Abortions -- and Aborts It

Abortion has commandeered headlines of late with the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade last week and Saturday's pro-life rally -- for which many protesters bused into this pro-choice lair from more conservative California zip codes. But there is one story of anti-abortion zeal here in our own bac ... More >>

Hot! Horny! Wasted! Teens!

New research about young military recruits who smoke, drink, and screw too much.

Whistleblower

By most accounts, David Kessler's four years as UCSF's medical school dean were a rip-roaring success. So why was he fired?

Coca-Cola for Culture Jammers

America and Marijuana: “Medicinal” My Ass

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Beaming in on The Cure

A new type of radiation therapy, developed by a Bay Area company, shows astonishing promise in fighting cancer

Looking for Mr. Goodbucks

In which we seek a nifty holiday gift for ourself: a rich gay boyfriend

Palookaville

In S.F.'s political fight game, all the contestants are ignoring a national biotech debate that could put the local economy down for the count

Miracle at the KK Cafe

Peanut milk can strengthen AIDS patients, heal gums, soothe chronic skin diseases, and prevent baldness, or so it is said. And it's found only one place on Earth.

Cell Therapy

Bay Area researchers are using a particular cancer to produce neuronlike cells that, when injected into the brain, seem to reverse the effects of stroke. Is the treatment a historic medical breakthrough, or a reckless ploy to attract investors?

The Anthrax Detector No One Wants

In Berkeley, researchers have found a way to identify deadly spores, which could lead to simple, smoke detector-like devices. So why isn't anyone interested?

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

riff raff

Take a Really Deep Breath

Dog Bites

Savage Love

Beauty Knows No Pain

Building a Better Body at the 28th Annual Session of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery