The Real Bread Campaign was co-founded by Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters, and Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming, the charity that runs the Campaign. The Campaign was officially launched on 26 November 2008. Drawing upon setting up and running The Village Bakery Melmerby (one of Britain’s first organic bakeries) for 25 years, Andrew Whitley is author of books including the seminal Bread Matters, which won the Andre Simon Food Book Award in 2006. Andrew also won the judges’ special prize at the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2011.
Andrew is co-founder of Bread Matters bakery school and consultancy; and of Scotland The Bread, the award-winning organisation working to re-localise the country’s loaf life based around heritage grains, sustainable farming and Real Bread making. They define Real Bread as made without chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or any other additives. This includes, but is not limited to, genuine sourdough bread. From this simple and universally-accessible starting point, the Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways of making bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. They work towards a future in which everyone has the chance to choose Real Bread and can access it within walking or cycling distance.
They are working to help create the following:
- There will be a legal definition of bread, a key criterion of which will be that it is made without additives.
- To help create a more level playing field on which small businesses can survive and thrive, and shoppers can make better-informed buying choices, there will also be legal definitions of loaf descriptors. These will include fresh/freshly-baked, wholegrain, artisan, craft, sourdough and heritage. A bakery will be legally defined as a place where bread is made from scratch, not a loaf-tanning salon.
- A full declaration of all ingredients and additives on the food label or point of sale display will be mandatory for every loaf, bun, wrap, sandwich etc..
- The majority of products made and sold will be bread, rather than additive-laden substitutes.
- Much of this bread will be made by independent bakeries that sustain more jobs per loaf, keep money circulating in local economies and help to keep their high streets alive.
- Being a Real Bread baker will be a fulfilling and aspirational career choice, available to people of every heritage and background.
- Bakeries and the baking industry, as a whole, will be diverse and inclusive. Ownership, profit, power and opportunity will be distributed more equitably.
- There will be a (micro)bakery or other place to buy Real Bread within walking or cycling distance of the majority of people.
- The owners and bakers of most of these neighbourhood bakeries will be members of local grain webs that also include farmers, millers and the people who buy their products.
- Many bakeries will be run as social or community enterprises.
- All bread will be free of pesticides and other agrochemicals because all grain, particularly wheat, will be grown by biodynamic, certified organic or other low-to-no-input farming,
- Micro-nutritional values and flavour of grain will be valued as much as yield and protein levels.
- Everybody will have the Real Bread knowledge and skills to make their own as it will be taught in all schools from primary age as part of ongoing food education, and available to the generations of adults who missed out on this when growing up.
- Everyone will be able to afford fairly-priced Real Bread and, in the meantime, bakeries will run initiatives to make bread accessible to people on low or no income.
- Therapeutic bread making, delivered by community-based businesses and initiatives, will be available on prescription.
- The seed to sandwich chain (for both bread and industrial loaf products) will be net zero
- No bakery will frequently have surplus bread to be redistributed or generate avoidable food waste at all.
As part of the charity Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming, the Real Bread Campaign is independent from the agri-food industry. In line with Sustain’s general policy, the Campaign does not accept funding from any source which would compromise, or even appear to compromise, the alliance’s principles. The Real Bread Campaign does not endorse or promote any one Real Bread bakery, baker, course, publication or organisation over another
Government Support or Lack of
The Real Bread Campaign has said the government’s response to its call for business support is “another slap in the face” as prime minister Rishi Sunak remains silent. The Campaign which wrote to Sunak and business secretary Grant Schapp’s predecessors on 21 September, calling for support for small bakery business owners, received a response on 29 December from the BEIS Correspondence Unit. According to the Read Bread Campaign, the reply outlined the Energy Bill Relief Scheme that had been announced after the letter has been sent and failed to address any other calls.
The response said: “The Government is currently carrying out a review to consider how to support businesses with energy bills after April 2023. Any support for businesses [will] be targeted to those most affected by high energy prices.”
Speaking of the government reply, Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: “Well, happy New Year. There are around 2,500 small bakeries in the UK. Each plays a valuable role in its community, not least by supporting skilled, meaningful jobs and keeping money circulating in the local economy. “After waiting over three months for further assurance, this delegated reply feels like another slap in the face for small bakery owners.” Following up, Young has asked BEIS when small bakery owners will receive details of what will happen after April and for answers to any outstanding points of the original letter.
Mislabelling
Following a trading standards complaint by the UK watchdog, high street retailer Iceland has withdrawn its own brand ‘50% white and wholemeal’ loaf from shelves. Campaign coordinator Chris Young applauds the retailer’s move, noting that Iceland could have circumvented the complaint by renaming the product. “The law is clear on what you can and can’t name and market using the word wholemeal,” said Young.
Iceland was only one of the five companies the Campaign approached in June 2022 to voice its concern that the marketing of their ‘half and half’ products are allegedly causing consumer confusion. Others included bread manufacturers Hovis, Warburtons and Jackson’s of Yorkshire, and retailer Aldi, reported Young.
According to Young, the Campaign is following up on its complaints with the trading standards teams at Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, Buckinghamshire & Surrey County Councils, Hull Cit Council, and London Borough of Waltham Forest.
It is also continuing to lobby the government to review regulation of the words wholegrain and wholemeal as part of its wider Honest Crust Act work. Defra advised the Campaign that it was “still considering the best course of actin to address this issue.” Added Young, “Evidently there’s an issue with the content, understanding and enforcement of current legislation, a full overhaul of which is long overdue.”
Affordability
In addition to physical/geographic accessibility (ie additive-free bread available within walking or cycling distance, or being delivered) an aspect of this mission is financial. How can Real Bread be made affordable for as many people as possible?
The majority of us in wealthy countries have varying degrees of discretion about how we spend our money. Far too many people are in poverty, though. Some people have to choose between feeding themselves, their kids or the electricity meter. Why should it be that people on low/no incomes have to settle for additive-laden, industrial pap, over which hang questions of nutritional value and other factors? Supermarkets and other industrial loaf fabricators could kick the additives to start making Real Bread, then leverage economies of scale (and other aspects of their business models) to make it accessible and affordable to millions of people, but generally choose not to.
While organisations including Sustain continue to push for structural change so that more people can afford to eat fresh, delicious, nutritious sustainably-produced food, Real Bread bakers can play a role in helping to bridge the gap.
Part of the solution that the Campaign, and many supporters and other friends in the network, offer is sharing knowledge and skills (including through classes, workshops, books, videos and websites) to empower and enable people to make their own bread at home. You might choose simply to run affordable classes in basic bread making or (as you get suitably experienced and knowledgeable) to run ‘lifestyle’ classes that help to subsidise your more affordable (or even free) basic skills classes. We also encourage public sector institutions (including schools, nurseries, hospitals, the forces, prisons) and some private sector organisations (like care homes and work canteens) to adopt our suggested procurement criteria for the bread they serve.
While home-based microbakers don’t benefit from bulk-buying discounts, or other economies of scale, to the same extent as even a small high street bakery, ingredients account for only a small part of a home bakery’s costs. Other than yourself, you have few if any staff costs and your overheads are far lower than if you were paying rent and rates on a production unit and/or prime retail site, buying and maintaining expensive equipment and so on. Please don’t undersell your products (or yourself) and be sure to factor in all of your costs in order to maintain a financially sustainable business but also consider what you can do to make your bread affordable/accessible to more people.
Some bakeries run pay-it-forward schemes, ie offer customers the opportunity to buy, or help to subsidise, a loaf for someone else in their local community who’s on a tighter budget. Perhaps there’s a local charity or community organisation doing relevant work that you can team up with on this. Scotland The Bread created the Solidarity Bags scheme, inviting people to buy a sack of their flour to pass to a community bakery to craft into affordable Real Bread. Is there a food voucher scheme in your area that you could join?
Real Bread Campaign: The Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. Whether your interest is local food, community-focussed small enterprises, honest labelling, therapeutic baking, or simply tasty toast, everyone is invited to become a Campaign supporter.
