We aimed to estimate the dietary energy content of food exports in the business-as-usual situation for Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) and then its contribution to food security after a potential nuclear war-induced “nuclear winter”. From published sources we estimated dietary energy available from the major domains of food exports, with adjustments for wastage. We specifically considered a severe case nuclear winter model by Xia et al (2021) ie, 150 Tg of soot ejected into the stratosphere. We found that the current NZ population has an estimated dietary energy intake of 44.4 billion kJ per day (8686 kJ per person per day). Current major food exports are equivalent to 3.9 times this amount ie, 34,100 kJ (8150 kcal) per person per day. Exported dairy products were estimated to be able to provide 338% of all the current dietary energy, followed by exports of: meat (34%); fruit (8.6%), alcohol (4.8%), marine products (4.6%), and vegetables (2.7%). After a severe case nuclear winter scenario that reduced food production by 58%, there would still be 1.7 times current daily intakes available from diverted exported foods (or 14,321 kJ [3423 kcal] per person per day). In conclusion, this country appears to have excess food production capacity even after a severe case nuclear winter scenario that more than halved food production. Nevertheless, NZ Government planners could build the resilience of the country’s food systems and plan to ensure that food can be fairly distributed with the likely accompanying post-war collapse of the global trading economy.

Background Recent studies linking low levels of nitrate in drinking water to colorectal cancer have raised public concerns over nitrate contamination. The aim of this study was to analyze the media discourse on the potential human health hazard of nitrates in drinking water in a high-income country with a large livestock industry: New Zealand (NZ). Methods Searches of media sources (“major newspapers”) held by the Factiva database for the NZ setting in the five-year period 17 December 2016 to 20 December 2021. Results The largest number of media items was observed for 2017 (n = 108), the year of a NZ general election, with a notable decrease in 2020 (n = 20) that was likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which dominated health media. However, the percentage of these media items with a health focus steadily increased over time, from 11.1% of all articles in 2017 to 51.2% in 2021. The most commonly mentioned health hazard was colorectal cancer, followed by methemoglobinemia. The temporal pattern of media items suggests that the release of scientific studies and scholarly blogs was associated with the publication of subsequent media items. Major stakeholders involved in the discourse included representatives of local and central government, environmental and recreational interest groups, researchers, local residents, agricultural interest groups, and health organizations. Māori (Indigenous New Zealanders) values or perspectives were rarely mentioned. Conclusions Analysis of major newspapers for a five-year period indicated that a wide range of expert comment and opinions were made available to the public and policy makers on the issue of nitrates in water. While many different stakeholder views were captured in the media discourse, there is scope for the media to better report the views of Māori on this topic. There is also a need for articles detailing the health issues to also refer to the environmental, recreational, and cultural aspects of protecting water quality to ensure that the public, policy makers, and regulators are aware of co-benefits.