i've written about stevia before

i use it (along with maple syrup and agave nectar) as a sweetener. it is NOT ALLOWED to be called a sweetener by the fda though. it CAN be sold but ONLY as a dietary supplement. in stores it can't be in the 'sugar aisle'.

i just came across this article. since BIG-BIDNEZ (cargill and coca-cola) are involved, seems like it's A-OK to be a sweetener now! it's a fuckin' miracle! suddenly when big-bidnez gets all it's shite in order, all it's ducks in a row (by that i mean they've developed their formulas for putting stevia in soda and other products) stevia is no longer a food supplement BUT it's a no-calorie sweetener.

are we morons? what happens to the other stevia sellers? does cargill own patents?
Cargill sees new sweetener on market in '08
By Martinne Geller
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Agribusiness and commodity trading group Cargill Inc said on Thursday that it expects its no-calorie sweetener made from a South American shrub to be on the U.S. market by the end of the year.
In an interview, Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill's Health and Nutrition unit, said the product, called rebiana, will be available this year as a tabletop sweetener.
Rebiana, which will be sold under the name Truvia, is made from the leaves of a shrub called stevia that is native to Paraguay and will provide a natural alternative to chemical sweeteners including Sweet'N Low and Equal.
Stevia is not approved as a food additive by health regulators in the United States or the European Union, though it can be sold as a dietary supplement. It is approved in a dozen countries, including Japan, China and Brazil.
Privately-held Cargill, which is handling the growing of the plants and the regulatory process, said it has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Association that Truvia is safe, based on scientific studies being published on Thursday in the journal "Food and Chemical Toxicology."
The company said FDA approval typically takes anywhere from two to six months.
Montero said Cargill is working with a number of companies on projects involving the sweetener, but declined to give a timeline for the launch of other rebiana-sweetened food products.
A spokesman for Coca-Cola Co, which co-developed the product with Cargill and has exclusive rights to use it in beverages, also declined to offer a schedule................

oh and one more thing. where do you think they're going to process all of this stevia? you guessed it. the same country that puts lead (and much worse) in ALL of the products it sends to us:

'One of Cargill's rebiana suppliers, GLG Life Tech Corp, said earlier this month that it started building a 500-metric-ton stevia processing facility in Qingdao, China.'