Eat Ethically Bread Matters: a Real Food Campaign

Date Published:

24/03/2009

Hannah Williams speaks to Real Bread campaigner, Andrew Whitley, to find out why bread matters

So how do you become an organic baker?

I was a BBC producer in the 1970s for the Russian Service. I wanted a change of career and was interested in the whole environmental cause I'd been exposed to as part of time with the Russian service and was looking for a life of greater self-reliance. I converted a stone barn next to my house into a small bakery and tearoom and grew organic fruit and vegetables on five acres behind.

A new bakery was built in 1991, incorporating a French wood-fired oven with a capacity of over 500 loaves and we began to supply whole food and organic shops in various parts of Britain. Then, as the importance of an organic approach to food and health became more widely recognised, the bakery was asked to supply Waitrose supermarkets.

How does organic bread differ to the processed stuff we buy in the supermarket?

Over the time I was making bread there was a large change in people's reaction to organic bread. A lot of people were coming out and saying they couldn't digest conventional bread.

Heavily processed breads have a much shorter fermentation process. There are also a lot of hidden additives not included on the labels that are in there to keep it soft and squidgy. Ideally bread needs a fermentation time of a minimum of four hours. If you let dough ferment for a minimum of four hours, that's when all the good stuff starts to come out. The fermentation time for processed bread can be zero hours, it's called no time dough; it's popped straight in the tin and the most amount of time is has to ferment in the tin can only be 20 minutes.

What is the Real Bread Campaign and what are you campaigning for?

The Real Bread Campaign is a coalition of consumers, bakers and campaigners interested in the nutritional quality and environmental sustainability of bread. We want a better system to engage smaller bakers and smaller bakeries. At the moment in the UK we're facing a huge landscape of unemployment. How would it be if some of those 3 million unemployed retrained as bakers producing real bread? That would transform the lives of bakers, the lives of the people locally who could eat the bread and the life of the planet as we cut down the separation time from manufacture to consumption.

So what's the plan of action?

We've submitted a funding bid to the Lottery for a project co-ordinator. When we've got that person on board we want to celebrate those who do make good bread, whether it be bakers or those making at home. On the Bread Matters website there's a map showing where people can buy good bread near to them. We want to teach people about the differences with real bread (that's had time to ferment) and the commercial stuff and even start a labelling campaign, providing sticky labels with additives on them that activists can place on the processed breads they see in supermarkets.

What should consumers be encouraged to do?

Go to a small bakers, that would be my preference. Some of the organic bread that's made to look like the commercially produced stuff can be very similar. Go to your local baker and ask them whether they use any additives and how long it takes to ferment their bread. That is a good indicator of whether it is good stuff. Or people could make their own, armed with a bread making machine or just with a mixer and oven. You can get lots of good flours now.

Will better bread cost us more?

You get what you pay for. People can understand the difference between a BMW and a Fiat so why can't they do that with food. Also, eating good bread is much more satisfying than processed loaves that are produced for overconsumption. Good bread is more satisfying and you're therefore likely to need to eat less in order to feel satisfied. That said, if you go to your local bakery there's not such a massive difference in price.

Do you think the problems in the bread industry are endemic of issues across the wider food industry?

Absolutely. The food industry has got itself into a position where it can only be served by finding ways to add value. It does this by reproducing and repackaging the same old thing.

There seems to be a bit of an anti-bread climate at the moment; can bread be good for us?

Bread is a great source of lots of complex carbohydrates. If you cut it out what are you going to replace it with? As everyone knows the key to a healthy diet is balance. Often the people who are buying cheap bread are the people who will not be getting vital nutrients from elsewhere in their diet and where good bread is most needed.

Baking your own bread is a great feeling; if you've spent a long time making something, when you go to the oven and take out what you've made, you feel like you've played a part in a miraculous process.

What will you be doing for Real Food Festival?

I'll be doing a talk at the Real Food Festival. I don't really do demonstrations as the whole concept is about giving the bread time and it wouldn't be much fun sitting watching dough ferment for four hours! I'm probably the only person who'd enjoy that. So I'm going to talk people through the different types of bread, perhaps bring along some tasting samples and discuss the issues around the Bread Matters campaign. The overall message is that more time leads to more trust leads to greater integrity.

Hear more from Andrew.

Bake your own with our bread recipes

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