RESPONSE TO AMB. FRANK MUTUBILA: FOOD DOES NOT FALL FROM THE SKY: PROSPERITY IS PRODUCED, NOT SERVED ON A PLATE

RESPONSE TO AMB. FRANK MUTUBILA:

FOOD DOES NOT FALL FROM THE SKY: PROSPERITY IS PRODUCED, NOT SERVED ON A PLATE.

By Michael Lombe

Ambassador Frank Mutubila’s concern about affordable food is legitimate. No one disputes that people need food on the table and a lower cost of living. But to reduce national development to “feed people first” is to confuse consumption with production.

Cheap food does not come so cheaply. Food must first be grown, transported, processed and sold. Someone must till the land, invest capital, create jobs and build infrastructure. Economies do not become prosperous because people eat; they become prosperous because people produce.

Should we stop building roads because people need food? Should we abandon schools because people are hungry? Should we halt power generation because stomachs are empty? Quite the contrary. Roads move food, electricity powers industry and education equips citizens to produce more food and wealth.

Even Scripture is instructive. God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. He did not build Adam a house or bake him bread. Human beings were created to create, produce and steward.

The Bemba saying, “ulufumo talutasha”, the stomach never appreciates, reminds us that consumption alone can never satisfy a nation. If everyone is fed for free, who then produces the free food?

The good news is that Zambia is pursuing precisely the right balance. Free education is the great equaliser, school feeding programmes are improving attendance, agricultural investment is raising production and infrastructure is laying the foundation for private sector growth and job creation.

Government’s role is not to distribute free food indefinitely. Its role is to create an enabling environment in which citizens can work, innovate, do business and earn a decent living.

Food on the table matters. But food arrives on the table because people work, produce and create value. Prosperity is a process, not an event where meals simply descend from heaven.