Every square below is drawn to scale — area is hectares. Pale squares are what New Zealand farms today; solid squares are the minimum needed to feed everyone for a year using that one food. The dashed yellow squares are the canola grown for biodiesel — the fuel for the farm machinery and trucks that produce and move that food. One look explains the paper's core finding: the land mostly exists — the question is what it grows.

Frames of reference

The same squares set against what New Zealand already crops — and a closer look at canola, which is too small to see at national scale. That invisibility is the point: the biofuel ask is tiny next to the food ask.

Growing on one hectare

The per-hectare version of the same numbers — what a single hectare gives in a normal year.

Squares are area-true within each panel; the canola close-up uses its own zoom, marked on the panel. Canola figures assume 20 km transport. Daily Intake = the energy and protein New Zealanders currently consume on average — current consumption held steady, not a survival ration (explained on the People & Nutrition page). Figures rounded for reading; the Scenario Builder carries full precision. Sources: Boyd et al. 2024 — current areas Table 2 (Stats NZ 2021/2022, Horticulture NZ 2022, LIC 2020, Tridge 2020); required land Table 3; canola Tables 4–6.