Sentence: If it were not for...

[Mil501]

Look at this sentence below:
If it were not for this change, we would still be eating raw meat like other animals.

I saw this sentence on my textbook and my question is:
why use "were" here instead of "was" while the subject is " it"?

thanks for your help.

[Jamie (K)]

We use "were" because that part of the sentence is in the subjunctive. In the subjunctive, we use only the form "were", even for the third person.

[Mil501]

Jamie, thank you very much =)