Chris Young

Co-ordinator of the Real Bread Campaign for the charity Sustain

So, here we are almost three years into the Real Bread Campaign’s fight for better bread in Britain, and the response continues to be fantastic. I’m always heartened by the passion people demonstrate for the cause, both within and beyond professional baking and milling circles.

Aside from our campaigning, what really seems to inspire people is our work to encourage more connections between real bread bakers and people in their local communities be that through our Lessons in Loaf and Bake Your Lawn schemes to get kids baking; helping public sector cooks and food access projects put real bread on the menu; or simply by inviting all bakers to add their additive-free loaves to our online Real Bread Finder.

Perhaps most exciting to me is the involvement of so many of our members in the rise of community supported baking, home bakeries and other ’alternative’ ways by which people are bringing artisanal bread back to the hearts of their local communities. More than 600 people have bought Knead to Know, our book on doing just this, and we’re now starting to hear back from readers who’ve been inspired by it.

Looking to our future plans, in October we’re launching the Real Bread Loaf Mark. This will allow bakers to give their customers an at-a-glance assurance that this is Real Bread. You’ll be able to read details closer to the time on our website.

I hope more BB readers will get involved with our work, adding your Real Bread by which we simply mean made without artificial additives or processing aids to our map and bready events to our calendar and, better still, joining us.