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Comment by russellbeattie | Hacker News Reader

Can NZ produce enough food for its population? If so, that definitely seems like the right place to be in case of the apocalypse. Beautiful land, gorgeous ocean, intelligent populace, and far, far away from everyone else.

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There are ~6 sheep per person in NZ and lots of wine, so I’m gonna go with yes.

Also, there’s the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival in NZ (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokitika_Wildfoods_Festival), where everyone dresses up in costumes and voluntarily eats foods that one might resort to during an apocalypse. Highly recommended.

It has good amount of meat/fish, exporting a lot now. But fruits and veggies are harder due to weather (but still possible with green houses, hydro, etc, tho to a smaller scale). It still needs corn, wheat, soy, etc to be imported.

We could be entirely self-sufficient in wheat etc, if we chose to be. Our current reliance on imports is just the free market at work - more money in dairy, and we're right next to a country that grows wheat far more efficiently.

I've watched quite a few wheat fields I grew up near become dairy pasture.

Yes. But for the love of God, we're not a lifeboat.

With its climate and low population density, it should be able to do that quite handily.

Yes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_se...

We are, and continue to be, a major exporter of food.

If you find yourself in the only place able to grow food you better be able to defend yourself as well.

Being really far away from everything else makes that a bunch easier

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