Researcher brings native food expertise to Burnett

Dr McGuire is the principal of Rainforest Bounty, a farming business based on the Atherton Tablelands.

ALL ABOUT SUSTAINABlE FOODS: Dr Geraldine McGuire and Central Burnett Landcare's Marion Denholm at the recent workshop at Mundubbera. Picture: Contributed

DR GERALDINE McGuire was in Mundubbera recently to address the Central Burnett Landcare group about native foods.

Dr McGuire is the principal of Rainforest Bounty, a farming business based on the Atherton Tablelands.

She has qualifications in agricultural science, with an emphasis on plant genetics.

She has worked all around the Pacific region, particularly in Indonesia, for mining companies, specialising in restoring degraded landscapes, giving her a great deal of knowledge about tropical soils and plants.

Dr McGuire emphasised to the group that a good financial result was important, but it could be combined with a good outcome for the natural environment.

In Australia, she purchased a former dairy farm and began converting it to a native food plantation using the principles she had developed in her restoration work overseas. There has been an increasing demand over the past few years for native foods, as chefs and cooks discover the different textures and flavours they can provide. Research is also showing that native foods have high value nutritionally.

Dr McGuire recently purchased another a large property, also an ex-dairy farm and is gradually being planted to a variety of native food-producing plants, in accordance with her philosophy of landscape restoration.