Stevia is a long used, natural product. The FDA should only have barred it's use if there was some reason to believe there was a significant risk.

The big sweetener processing companies probably got it banned in the first place because it will be a low profit product. As a natural product with no legal protection or control over who can make it, it is sure to be manufactured by many companies, insuring tight competition.

The whole reason capitalism works in the first place is that selfish greed and the public interest to lean in the same direction some of the time. In this case, the soft drink companies have probably done us a favor in getting Stevia legalized.

Jay