The Real Bread Campaign
What is it for?
The Real Bread Campaign aims to increase the enjoyment, production and consumption of bread made with natural ingredients, appropriate fermentation and no adulterants. We think good bread should play a larger part in the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the nation. And we want to see grain and bread production at the heart of a sustainable ecological food system.
Why is it needed?
In the UK, we eat less bread and more fats and sugars than we used to. Obesity, diabetes and heart disease are rife. Yet there’s a consensus that cereals, especially whole grains, should be a major part of our diet.
The trouble is, something’s wrong with modern bread: more and more people find it unappealing or just plain indigestible. There’s growing evidence that changes in wheat varieties, milling methods and baking technology may be to blame. Almost all bread is made at high speed using added enzymes that aren’t even declared on the label. So even if we want to make healthy choices, we’re denied crucial information.
British bread is dominated by a few large industrial bakers who seem keener to sell us higher-priced fortified ‘healthy eating’ novelties than to make their basic bread better. Small-scale local bakers who use time and skill not additives are beginning to re-emerge, but they are few and far between.
They need our support to restore bread to its role, if not as the staff of life, then as an important food valued for its innate qualities and not just cheapness or convenience.
What does it do?
We campaign for proper labelling so at least we know what we’re eating. We want all the additives – declared and hidden – out of bread. We won an Advertising Standards Authority ruling against Tesco for wrongly claiming that all their shops bake bread from scratch using British flour. We are helping to organise scientific research into why fast-made bread leaves so many people bloated. We encourage and support bakers, small and large, who make real bread. We work with other organisations to make real bread available in schools, hospitals and other public institutions. Our Lessons in Loaf initiative teams real bakers up with schools so that children get hands-on experience of making proper bread. We run the National Breadmaker Week which encourages everyone to dig out their machine and find out how much better making their own bread can be. And we work to bring farmers, millers, bakers, retailers and the rest of us closer to create more sustainable grain chains.
And you?
Take a look at the Real Bread Finder to locate a good baker near you. You can join online at www.realbreadcampaign.org.
If you are not yet a member, we will pay your first year’s subscription if you join at the same time as booking (and paying full for) a place on a Bread Matters course.
