Unearthing Stevia’s Promise

Indigenous Herb to Cash DNA

AvMolly Rose Bond

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

Del i serien Food and Society: New Directions

284 kr

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Beskrivning

What can one small, powerfully sweet plant reveal about the future of our food? This book unearths the story of one of the world’s favourite ‘natural’ sugar substitutes—following 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 biotech fermentation labs to biodiversity governance, this book exposes the tangled political ecologies of sweetness and accessibly explains the rapid technological changes in our agri-food systems.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-11-26
Mått:156 x 234 x undefined mm
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Food and Society: New Directions
Antal sidor:272
Förlag:Bristol University Press
ISBN:9781529261059

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Mer om författaren

Molly Rose Bond is Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.

Recensioner i media

“Sidney Mintz showed how sugar built the modern world on the bodies of slaves. Molly Bond writes the next chapter: a plantation that no longer needs the plant. She traces the Guaraní herb called Aunt Ka'a he'ê from Paraguayan campesino fields to the Nebraska fermentation tanks where Cargill's engineered yeasts now ferment sweetness by the tank. Bond shows how synthetic biology presents itself as disruptively new, while relying on an old grammar of appropriation, extraction, and monopoly. The wealthiest corporations on earth are betting we will not notice. This book makes sure we do.” Raj Patel, The University of Texas at Austin

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction: A Plant to Think WithInterlude: Stevia Speaks! Plant Beings, Fact, Fiction, Fame and Fabulation.1. Promissory Bioeconomy and Synthetic Stevia2. Promissory Justice for Aunt Ka’a he’ê and KinInterlude: Borderlands3. Campesino Cash Crop Ka’a he’ê4. Corporate Cash Molecule: Breaking and Re-Making the PromiseInterlude: Medicine Woman5. Indigenous Herb to Cash DNA: Promises Collide at the UN Biodiversity ConferenceConclusion: Sweetness and PowerAfter Word from Stevia+