Unearthing Stevia’s Promise

What can one small, powerfully sweet leaf reveal about the future of our food? This book uncovers the story of one of the world’s favourite ‘natural’ sugar substitutes—tracking Stevia’s journey from Indigenous medicine to cash crop to the frontier of lab-grown biotechnology. As corporations race to replicate its intense sweetness biosynthetically, this captivating narrative dives into the frictions between promise and disruption shaping the 21st century’s alternative to sugar.

From indigenous smallholdings to high-tech fermentation labs to bioeconomic governance, this book exposes the tangled politics of sweetness and accessibly explains the rapid technological changes in our agri-food systems.