Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 47
Despite securing funding in June 2023, obtaining financial support for research that’s not food can be challenging.
This forced Kate to diversify, and she is currently undertaking studies in Australian native plants that are also food
sources. This includes tapping into plants that sustained
First Nations peoples for tens of thousands of years.
“We’ve overlooked native foods. We’ve pulled them out,
we’ve destroyed them, and we really need to bring them
back,” Kate says. “We are now looking at bringing back
plants that have existed in Australia as food crops under First
Nations development into mainstream food production.
“It’s challenging because those plants are growing out
in the wild. There’s a level of domestication that needs to
occur for all these new-old foods to fit into the commercial
system. It’s all about helping us become more sustainable,
resilient and regenerative. Bringing nature back to help us
survive and help everything on the planet survive.”
Shifting public perception is a challenge, but Kate has
a plan. “It’s about targeting plants that already exist and
bringing them into development and cultivation,” she says.
LUMEN
