I forget what the inspiration was behind this, but something along the lines of how much people panic in bad situations leading to a lack of food on the shelves. Then I most likely took it to another level, seeking out a different reason why there might not be food on the shelf.
In the case of this prompt, the problem that started it was a lack of rain. Without enough rain, people weren’t able to grow enough food. This was not a global phenomena, but it was wide spread enough to mean that providing food for all the affected areas put a huge strain on the non effected areas.
The first question to answer is how badly was the home of the main character hit. The main character is trying to get food from other countries to feed people in their country. How many people are in their country and how many people have been tasked with this job. A country of a few thousand people is going to do things differently than a country with a few hundred million or a few billion people. They have to.
After the first question many more questions appear, questions that directly affect how the main character will be going about this new job they have and what the people around them will be doing.
Feeding people will be important, but so will making sure they aren’t taken advantage of. A small nation might worry about being taken over, especially if a close neighbor does have food while a large nation might have to worry about if how to distribute any food they get. Wealthy people might be able to find their own supplies of food and there is a very real possibility that they might hoard it out of fear that there might not be more coming in. With globally limited food is this a place that the government might try to limit what people are even allowed to spend their own money on? Will countries with strict hunting and fishing laws loose them a little or is there even a point?
There are a lot of questions to answer. What question do you find the most important in this situation? What question does your character find the most important in this situation? Are they the same question?
