Imagine you live in a dystopia where all the crops die out, what would you do to stay alive?

Contestant 1

When news initially broke that all the crops had suddenly died out, I was among the first to know. I’ve always kept an eye out for breaking news. There was no time to freak out: I spent my money ordering batches of freeze-dried meals and nutritional supplements in small amounts from a variety of different online vendors, so as not to alarm others and make myself open to the roaming hordes of food-snatchers that were bound to emerge.

Within a day, all my orders had arrived, but one peek out the window confirmed my darkest fears – the Hunger Games had begun. All the restaurants had been looted, and the world was in chaos.

Just as I was stashing my food away, there was a knock on the door – it was my brother.

“Sister,” he rasped. “I’m famished, but I saw you ordering food yesterday, won’t you share some with me?”

“Sorry,” I replied. “This writing prompt I was given is asking me what would I do to stay alive and feeding you ain’t gonna help.”

“Very well.” My brother’s voice cracked as he started to retreat. “I’m going to come back and you’ll be sorry. I’m sorry, too.”

As his footsteps faded in the distance, I looked down at myfeet, ashamed. I couldn’t do it. I ran after him.

I’m sorry, Prompt; I have failed you. It’s just not possible to survive, but maybe you’ve taught me something more important than survival …

A world in which all the crops have died out might not be real, but it is still correct to say that the world we live in is one where we are not as kind to the environment as we should be. That’s why it’s important for us to know how to survive if something like this were to happen.

Our actions have consequences. Our thoughts, words, and behaviours can change minds and influence decisions, and this would come of use if crops die out. A lot of us do not have the leadership or authority to influence whole countries, but if we affect even just one person, we will have accomplished something meaningful.

The human spirit thrives on creativity, innovation, effort, and reason, especially in the face of trouble. It’s because of this that we have made it this far, so if the worst should happen then we should come up with an answer to the shortage of crops together.

Laws exist because they are supposed to protect the greatest number of people in a dystopian world (one in which everything is bad). I would join a political party, or start my own, so that my laws could be put into place. I would do this by taking part in respectful but critical discussions. I would protest. And I would fight for the survival of humanity.

If I lived in a dystopia where all crops had died out, I would go to a landfill. A landfill would have all the things that I would need. I could eat all the leftovers, for example. We are very wasteful, so that should be able to keep me going for months.

Then, I would take some of the soil from the landfill, make compost with things like banana peels and egg shells, and find seeds from old fruits to plant. I would still have water from rivers and lakes, so I could grow my own crops.

After a few months, I would harvest what I’d grown and live off that for the rest of my life. So there you have it – at first, I’d only have leftovers to eat, but then I’d have an endless supply of fruit.

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