Avoiding becoming a Bolt and Wolt nation

Today, I was about to write about the 2026 Budget just unveiled by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana. However, more on this over the weekend. For now, I turn to a different kind of budget; one that must not be as generous fiscally on calories. Certainly, we need a debate in Parliament about the food that’s being delivered to our doorsteps, often in plastic and paper bags within just 20 minutes. In all honesty, Malta has become a Bolt and Wolt nation. From meals on wheels for our elderly in the 1990s to a different set-up. Indeed, post the Covid-19 pandemic, our country’s ability to deliver food, oh sorry, any food, is just an app on our mobile away, where the effort once required to indulge in fast food has been replaced by convenience, speed, and a growing sense of detachment from its consequences. We are outsourcing not just our meals, but our movement, our discipline, and increasingly, our health, because we don’t cook as we did in the past. Besides, this service delivers additional emissions, generates more waste, and further contributes to the deterioration of our mental and physical well-being.

There was a time when for example eating at a McDonald’s or Burger King required effort. You had to drive, park, queue, and confront the reality of your choice. Today, that effort has evaporated. Fast food is no longer a destination; it’s become a default. And it’s not just the food that has been commodified. The delivery itself, often performed by third-country nationals, inter alia, Nepalese, Indian and Pakistani workers, is effectively treated as a faceless transaction. The burger arrives, the app pings, and the human behind the delivery disappears in a few seconds. This dehumanisation is not just unethical but symptomatic of a broader societal erosion. We are losing the rituals of eating, the social accountability of public consumption, and the physical movement that once buffered our indulgences. Even the act of stepping outside to purchase a meal, an act that once offered a moment of reflection, a breath of fresh air and a break from routine, has been replaced by a deskbound click.

Have we ever truly calculated the cost of this convenience? Not in euros, but in insulin levels, blood pressure, and body mass index. Malta continues to rank among the highest in Europe for non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular conditions and type 2 diabetes. According to the World Obesity Federation and Malta’s own Non-Communicable Disease Prevention Framework, our rates of obesity, especially among children and adolescents, are not just concerning, they are structurally entrenched. And yet, we persist in subsidising the problem socially, economically, and digitally. The rise of food delivery platforms has made calorie-dense, nutrient-poor meals more accessible than ever, while the long-term costs are quietly absorbed by our healthcare system, our labour market, and our collective well-being.

Food delivery platforms are thriving and restaurants are selling. However, our nation is swelling. And the government, already strained by low fertility rates and a shrinking labour supply, is quietly absorbing the long-term costs of higher healthcare expenditure, reduced productivity, and a generation growing up with sedentary habits and poor nutritional literacy. Needless to say, the irony is stark. We are investing in digital infrastructure, in platform economies and gig works, while simultaneously eroding the very health of the population that sustains it. Even the fact of moving your car and not finding parking makes it difficult to purchase fast food.

True, the Fish Friday initiative in schools is commendable. But it’s not a strategy. What we need is a comprehensive, cross-sectoral plan that tackles the root causes of our nutritional decline. This is not just about food. It’s also about urban design, education, taxation, and digital regulation. Should fast food be confined to physical venues? Should platforms like Bolt and Wolt be prohibited from listing certain items? It may sound draconian but so did smoking bans once upon a time. We could introduce a health levy on fast food deliveries. Make them more expensive not to punish, but to nudge. Well, using a little nudge economics for those who understands it, would make sense. Perhaps the government can use the additional revenue to keep subsidising gym memberships, nutrition programmes, and mental health services. Platforms push what sells. Often, that’s what’s salty, fatty, and sugary. We need transparency and accountability in how food options are ranked and promoted. We should also incentivise the listing of fresh, local, and seasonal foods on delivery platforms. Make healthy eating not just possible, but visible and viable. Else, why did we introduce an agricultural land reform? Just to pass unused land to others? Well, the EU must step in with such a strategy, just as they must step in to regulate Airbnb and Booking.com.

This is not just about teenagers but also about adults, office workers and pensioners. The government’s gym subscription scheme is a step in the right direction, but it must be expanded and normalised. Daily movement, whether it’s walking to buy groceries, cycling to work, or attending a fitness class, is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Physical activity is a proven antidote to depression, anxiety, and chronic illness. It’s also a form of civic engagement. When people move through their communities, they connect. They observe, and they participate. Delivery culture, by contrast, isolates people. It confines us to our bedrooms, our screens, our inactive routines. And while we speak of digital transformation, we must also speak of digital dependency, especially when it begins to shape our bodies, our habits, and our public health outcomes.

Certainly, schools must go beyond Fish Fridays. They must teach food literacy, cooking skills, and the science of nutrition. Employers must incentivise movement, through flexible hours, wellness programmes, and active commuting schemes. Media must shift the narrative from indulgence to empowerment and from convenience to consequence. And yes, we must confront the uncomfortable truth of our reliance on food delivery, which is not just a personal choice. It has become a systemic issue. One that intersects with migration, labour rights, urban planning, and digital capitalism. The delivery rider is not just a service provider. He is a mirror of our consumption habits, our urban priorities, and our economic blind spots.

We must decide whether we want to continue down this path of passive consumption – outsourcing our meals and our movement – or whether we are ready to embrace a different mindset. A Bolt and Wolt nation is not inevitable. It’s a choice. And like all choices, it can be reversed, reimagined, and redirected. But it requires courage, coordination, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. It requires us to ask, what kind of society do we want to be? One that delivers burgers faster than ambulances? One that treats food as fuel rather than culture? One that commodifies labour while ignoring the labourer? Let’s start by asking the right questions. Let’s follow with bold answers. And let’s remember that the future of our nation is not just in its budgets, but in its body mass index and healthy lifestyles. It is not just in its GDP, but in its capacity to nourish, to move and to connect. We must act not just with policy, but with principle. Because the health of a nation is not delivered. It is cultivated. However, thank you Minister Caruana for presenting a budget that considered our families.