Real Bread Campaign

Real Bread logo

What is the Real Bread Campaign?

See also

 Not a member yet? Find our how and why to  join us now

What we are

Part of the charity Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, the Real Bread Campaign fights for better bread in Britain.

Starting with a basic definition of Real Bread being made without the use of any artificial additives, the Campaign seeks, finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

Building on our success to date, we are now working to secure funding to help us unlock the social, therapeutic and employment opportunities offered by making Real Bread by hand. In this we aim to help people facing social exclusion due to a range of factors that might put them at a disadvantage, including living with mental health issues or physical disabilities. read more here.

The Real Bread Campaign was co-founded by Sustain and Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters.

Aims

We:

  • Run a membership scheme for everyone who cares about the state of bread in Britain
  • Have published the book Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter, the guide to success in baking Real Bread for your local community
  • Are running Lessons in Loaf and Bake Your Lawn, with the aim of Real Bread making skills being taught in at least 100 schools
  • Are helping to put Real Bread on the Menu of food access projects (such as food co-ops, community cafes and lunch clubs), and public sector institutions (such as schools, hospitals, care homes and prisons)

See how we're getting on here.

More generally, we are:

  • Sharing the pleasures and benefits of locally-baked Real Bread over what we see as adulterated imitations
  • Calling for an Honest Crust Act that: requires producers and retailers to declare in plain English exactly what has gone into the production of every loaf; creates legal definitions for terms including 'freshly baked/fresh', 'artisan', 'craft baker' 'traditional' and 'sourdough'. This will offer you the chance to make a better informed choice about what you feed to your family, and small independent, local bakeries to make a clear distinction of the difference between their Real Breads and other products on the market
  • Challenging what we see as misleading marketing of industrial/supermarket loaves
  • Helping to raise awareness of issues around additives and hidden processing aids
  • Championing the cause of more research into issues of health and nutrition (including digestibility, intolerance, allergy and GI) to establish factors that could have a beneficial effect (such as longer fermentation, the use of sourdough, and wheat breeding) and lead to more people being able to eat Real Bread

Our activities

In addition to the core work above, members of the Campaign around the country are engaged in activities such as:

  • Sharing the many values of Real Bread that have been lost in the quest for an ever cheaper loaf at the cost of all other considerations
  • Networking to bring farmers, millers, bakers and consumers closer together to create shorter food chains and support each other in making Real Bread available in their local communities; Real Bread bakers and other educators in sharing their skills, experience, passion and knowledge with children, caterers, professional and home bakers
  • Campaigning for: bread production that gives paramount importance to nourishment, flavour, digestibility and sustainability; support for local food systems, agricultural diversity and participatory plant breeding to enhance nutritional quality and local resilience
  • Lobbying for Real Bread values to be supported by policies covering education, training, food labelling, nutritional guidelines, nutritional and agricultural research

Campaign members

You don't have to be a baker to join us!

Though many people have joined the Campaign as professional bakers, the majority have become members simply because they care about the state of bread in Britain and support our aims.  Other people joined us to become part of our mutually-supportive network of companions.

 Not a member yet? Then sign up online now

A Campaign member is not necessarily a baker and a baker with loaves listed on our finder is not necessarily a Campaign member.

Click here for the results of our 2011 members' survey.

Campaign ambassadors

As the risk of sounding twee, all of our members can - and often do - act as ambassadors for the rise of Real Bread.

We have chosen, however, to give this title to just a small number of people who champion the cause with a higher public profile. In alphabetical order they are:

Richard Bertinet
Originally from Brittany, Richard trained as a baker both there and at the Grand Moulin de Paris. Following stints at the Chewton Glen Hotel, as head chef at the Rhinefield House Hotel in the New Forest and as Operations Director with the Novelli Group of restaurants, Richard moved to Bath, where he still runs The Bertinet Kitchen cookery school and bakery. In addition to his acclaimed bread books Crust and Dough, Richard is the author of Cook and Pastry.  Richard has made numerous TV appearances on the BBC, Carlton, Channel 4 and UKTV Food.
www.thebertinetkitchen.com

Aidan Chapman
With his wife Lisa, Aidan Chapman owns The Phoenix Bakery in Weymouth. Aidan has been baking for 22 years, including five years as Head Baker at The Celtic Bakers in London. In 2005 he moved to Dorset, where he helped to set up Leaker’s Bakery in Bridport and then The Town Mill in Lyme Regis. The Phoenix School offers professional and amateur bread making workshops, and Aidan also teaches bread courses at River Cottage headquarters. Aidan has made several television appearances alongside Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, and is the author of The Soulful Bread Book.
www.phoenixbakery.co.uk

Emmanuel Hadjiandreou
Emmanuel is head of baking at The School of Artisan Food. Originally from South Africa, he has worked for Gordon Ramsay, The Savoy, Daylesford Organics, Flour Power City and as head baker at Judges Bakery in Hastings. In 2012 the Guild of Food Writers’ presented him with The Jeremy Round Award for Best First Book for How to Make Bread.
www.schoolofartisanfood.org

Tom Herbert
Tom is the fifth generation, award winning baker at Hobbs House Bakery. He is one half of Channel 4’s The Fabulous Baker Brothers, and co-author of the accompanying book. As well as being a columnist for British Baker magazine, he has appeared on shows such as Market Kitchen and in April 2010, Tom was the star of his own one hour BBC Four documentary In Search of the Perfect Loaf.  
www.hobbshousebakery.co.uk

Andrew Whitley
The Campaign’s co-founder left his role as a BBC World Service producer in 1976 to found the Village Bakery, which from its origins serving Melmerby in the Lake District, grew to selling its Real Bread nationally. Since Andrew moved on from the business in 2002, he has run his training and consultancy company Bread Matters and written the award-winning book of the same name. In 2012 Andrew moved Bread Matters to Lamancha in Scotland, where he continues sharing with people Real Bread skills, pleasures and benefits, as well as questioning the true costs of additive-laden alternatives
www.breadmatters.com

Campaign working party

As with other Sustain projects, the work of the Real Bread Campaign is guided by a group of experts, which meets quarterly to advise the Campaign coordinator.

Chaired a trustee from the Sustain council, the working party comprises people invited from Sustain's member organisations and others with relevant expertise and experience.

You can read more about the structure of Sustain here.

Working party membership

Members and the organisations that they represent

(last updated May 2012)

Chair: Emma Hockridge (Soil Association)

Academy of Culinary Arts  -  Sara Jayne Stanes / Alexandra Sinclair
Bertinet Kitchen  -  Richard Bertinet
Bread Matters  -  Andrew Whitley
Campaign to Protect Rural England  - Graeme Willis
Caroline Walker Trust  -  Dr Helen Crawley
Cinnamon Square  -  Paul Barker
Cotton's Craft Bakery  - Graham Cotton
Doves Farm  -  Clare Marriage
F3 Local Food Consultants / Wild Yeast bakery  -  Simon Michaels
Farmeco   -  David Rose
Gilchesters Organics -  Andrew Wilkinson
Great Northumberland Bread Co  -  Matthew Rawlings
Handmade Bakery - Dan / Johanna McTiernan
Hobbs House Bakery  - Tom Herbert
Infinity Food bakery   - Colm Tothill
Judges Bakery  and School of Artisan Food - Emmanuel Hadjiandreou
King's College   - Professor Jonathan Brostoff
LandShare CIC  -  Amanda Cooper
Nicholas & Harris  -  Simon Staddon
QED London    - Silvija Davidson
Real Bread Campaign (Sustain) - Chris Young
Real Food Festival   - Phillip Lowery
Sharpham Park  - Roger Saul / Leona McDonald
Shipton Mill  - John Lister
Sociolegal   - Veronica Burke
Sustain - Charlie Powell
Traditional Cornmillers Guild -   Jonathan Cook / Nick Jones
Vintage Cook   - Angie Greenham

Staff and volunteers

Since July 2009 the Campaign has been coordinated by Chris Young. He draws on the knowledge and expertise of the Campaign’s advisory working party, membership and wider supporter network for advice, guidance and practical help.  He is assisted as necessary by part-time volunteers and also relies upon the support of Sustain’s finance, design and IT team.

Chris reports to Sustain’s Campaigns Director Charlie Powell, who in turn reports to Sustain’s Coordinator Jeanette Longfield.

How we are funded

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 appear to compromise, the alliance’s principles.

The Campaign's sources of income:

  • The Big Lottery's Local Food programme is providing 80% of the funds needed to run the Real Bread Campaign from July 2009 to June 2013.
  • Campaign membership fees make up the bulk of the remainder.
  • Sheepdrove Trust provides an annual grant.
  • Publication sales and public donations also make valuable contributions to enable us to continue our work.

The majority of Campaign members join as individuals, though around a fifth join on behalf of bakeries or other organisations.

Our Local Food and Sheepdrove funding ends in June 2013. Read what we are doing to ensure the Campaign can continue beyond that date and how you can help here.

Read more about:

Impartiality

The Real Bread Campaign does not endorse or promote any one Real Bread bakery, baker, course, publication or organisation over another.

Membership
You don't need to be a baker to join us! Everyone can become a Campaign member, either as an individual or as a representative of a company or other organisation.

Real Bread Finder listing
Inclusion in our Real Bread Finder is solely dependent on the product shown being what we define as Real Bread. A listings there, on our events calendar, courses or any other pages of our site are independent of Membership.

Advertising/sponsorship
In line with Sustain policy, the Real Bread Campaign accepts no advertising or sponsorship from profit making organisations in the food and farming sector. The only money accepted from such companies/organisations are standard membership fees in return for standard benefits.

Campaign logos
If a Campaign member chooses to display our 'proud to support...' badge, it simply signifies just that - they support the Campaign. The appearance of our supporter badge is not an assurance that Real Bread standards are being met.

For details of our separate Real Bread Loaf Mark scheme, please click here.