The Evolution of Bread

by Noel Buttigieg

The Malta populace were, and still are, mass consumers of bread and sundry grain products. Their body derived most of its calories from this staple food. The central position of bread in their daily lives also became the very centre of social, political and economic life. Although not unique within this framework, this Mediterranean society was often controlled, if not held hostage, by the importance of procuring the daily bread and the omnipresent fear of hunger.

In the case of Malta, these challenges were magnified for several obvious reasons. The scarce natural resources marginalized the island’s ability of provisioning itself. This immediately meant that provisioning depended exclusively on imports particularly from Sicily. When the source experienced scarcity, the islanders faced the imminent danger of hunger. In adverse conditions, the government of the island even adopted forced provisioning by confiscating grain cargoes from any ships calling into the Grand Harbour or plying within the vicinity of the archipelago.

Thus, what often had been described as a narrow and monotonous diet by several contemporary foreign accounts, is strictly conditioned by all those variables which imperiled provisioning, production, rationing and distribution of bread. It is exactly the understanding of these variables that the Bread Festival attempted to achieve over the past years.