Barratt's the guy with the commercial angle. He runs Royal Sweet, which has fields of stevia in California, and a patented process for refining the sweet essence from the leaves. Barratt wants to see products sweetened with stevia on every store shelf in North America. He says its bound to happen. There's no question in my mind.
Stevia is native to Paraguay.
The people of Paraguay and Brazil have used it for centuries to make a sweet herbal tea. In recent years stevia has made its way to the Far East. It has been embraced in Japan, where it's used in soy sauce, sweet pickles and soft drinks. In Japan, Diet Coke has been sweetened with stevia. And it has also taken root in North America, but just barely.