Zambia’s Maize Paradox: Land-poor Farmers in a Land-rich Country

When I saw the photo of the little girl in Mutanga, Zambia, I cried. It was the kind of image that tugs at Western bleeding-heartstrings to loosen their purse-strings. It had that emotional effect on me, which was incongruous because I’d taken the photo myself. And the girl was was one of seven children on a relatively successful small farm. (Excerpted from Eating Tomorrow, Chapter 4)

When I saw the photo of the little girl in Mutanga, Zambia, I cried. There she sat in the dirt, knees tucked up to her chin, head in her hands, barefoot, maybe nine years old. She looked down into the red dust in front of her, expressionless. She wore a green skirt and a second-hand hooded sweatshirt. She looked poor, but worse than that, she looked abandoned.

It was the kind of photo that passes for “poverty porn,” the sort of image that unscrupulous aid agencies use to tug at Western bleeding-heartstrings to loosen their purse-strings. It had that emotional effect on me, which was incongruous because, in fact, I’d taken the photo myself. And the girl was no orphan in a refugee camp. She was one of seven children on a relatively successful small farm in Zambia.

Her name was Machila. Her father, Wilfred Monga, was showing us his farm, and he had a lot to show. He was a successful crop and livestock…