We stand transfixed, observing the allegorical shadows in Plato’s cave – a phantom of reality. Decided as we are to become chained by the complacency of convenience, sophistication, alienation and patronising contempt, we dismiss the crumbling of our heritage and our very survival in the miasma of progress and economic growth.

For although we nostalgically ponder Facebook photos of Malta in decades gone by, we seem to miss the crux of the matter. We may become enraged by the stark difference, at the eroding of our open spaces, at the disregarding of our landscape throughout these past years but we fail to comprehend these phenomena and put our fingers on the cause: the downtrodden agricultural sector.

Agriculture was crucial for our nation. There is no need to go into a historical or sociological treatise as it is beyond the scope of this article. However, any Maltese citizen would do well to remove the ambivalence lurking in one’s mind as to the role our farmers and fishermen played in our great history.

They were always the backbone of any historical event, the unsung heroes if there ever were any. They tended our soils, provided our forefathers with food, groomed our landscape and maintained our countryside. They were the stewards of a Malta brimming with open spaces, fresh food and a deep-rooted rural tradition.

There’s no going ­back to what once was but can we save what’s left of our food production sector?

Once agriculture started playing second fiddle to other industries that contributed more significantly to our nation’s economy, Malta’s landscape changed forever and with the rise of less restricted trade, local food became less strategically important. Thus, as history can strongly verify, a weaker agricultural sector is conducive to more construction and development.

The destiny that was set for Malta’s economic and educational development and the chronology of the sector itself saw agriculture getting stuck in a lacklustre baggage of peasantry, excessively hard manual labour, lack of bargaining power, lack of visibility and, more importantly, dispensability. It became a sector that got stuck somewhere between limbo and Harry Potter’s nine and three-quarters platform.

The reasons are varied but a strong economic development in sectors that needed that same agricultural land and an increase in the size of the population meant that political, educational, sociological or economical prioritisation was mere and scattered.

Notwithstanding all these trials and tribulations, agriculture is limping through and continues to provide us with some fresh food every day. But our sociological paradigm, in line with agriculture’s baggage mentioned above, is made up of a mindset of food sufficiency rather than quality. We hardly wonder where our food comes from and the only food-related facts we hold on to are those we scroll through in our Facebook news feed.

For our country’s recent history moulded a deep chasm between rural Malta and our plates, a chasm that affects our food demands, trends and preferences. While the fish gills’ bright red colour, a recently slaughtered animal carcass and soil-covered carrots are associated with freshness and, hence, makes them more desirable for the populace of neighbouring countries, we are still struggling to realise that the bananas we buy from our supermarket do not grow in Malta.

And now our economic development has led us to our desiring and affording items and services of relative luxury. Right on cue, all sorts of high-end restaurants are opening shop, offering splendid, sophisticated and picture-perfect plates. But while gastronomy-celebrating places around the globe pride themselves in using the freshest, authentic, local ingredients, ours have no other option but to procure most of their items from other foreign lands. And which tourist comes to Malta to taste Italian ingredients anyway?

The writing is very clearly on the wall. There’s no going back to what once was but can we save what’s left of our food production sector? Can we valorise a sector and its people that provide us with our open spaces? Can we save our rural heritage? Can we realise that a country’s food-producing sector is strategically crucial?

Only time will tell but trends show that there will come a time when we will open our history books and read: “A once rural Malta had farmers to grow its food. Now they’re gone forever”.

Malcolm Borg is deputy director at Mcast’s Institute of Applied Sciences in charge of the Centre for Agriculture, Aquatics & Animal Sciences.