The future of bread: Minister of State responds

Campaign's bread proposals binned?. Credit: www.realbreadcampaign.org

Published: Tuesday 14 October 2025

On 14 October 2025, the Real Bread Campaign received a reply from Dame Angela Eagle, the Minister of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Minister wrote: ‘Thank you for your email of 1 October and your kind words of congratulation. I am delighted to have been appointed a Minister at Defra, and I look forward to working with you. Thank you for your kind invitation.’

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘It’s great that we got such as swift response from the Minister, but concerning and frustrating that she didn’t acknowledge the content of our letter and briefing, or suggest a date for the meeting we proposed.’

He added: ‘It doesn’t give us confidence that the current Government has any more appetite for our Honest Crust Act proposals for a better bread Britain than the previous six Prime Ministers’ nine ministries since the Campaign began.’

Sustain is currently working on the order of priorities for lobbying, other Ministerial contact and campaigning more generally.

Background

Dame Angela was replying to the briefing and letter originally sent by the CEO of Sustain (the charity that runs the Campaign) to the Minister’s predecessor, Daniel Zeichner, on 18 February 2025.

Mr. Zeichner had replied on 13 May 2025, saying 'I would welcome meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest, and my Private Office will be in touch to organise a convenient date and time.' This did not happen before he was moved on from Defra in the Cabinet reshuffle at the start of September 2025.

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Chris Young
Campaign Coordinator
Real Bread Campaign

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign since March 2009. In addition to lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws; he created and runs Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise promoting therapeutic/social benefits and bread making; the No Loaf Lost surplus reduction initiative; as well as Lessons in Loaf and Bake Your Lawn for schools. He’s the author of the Knead to Know…more microbakery handbook and Slow Dough: Real Bread recipe book; and edits True Loaf magazine.

From 2014-18, Chris also coordinated the London Food Link network, which included editing The Jellied Eel magazine and helping to launch and run the Urban Food Awards. Chris has pulled on his judge’s wig for BOOM Awards, The Cateys, The Great Taste Awards, The Scottish Bread Championship and The World Bread Awards. In 2017, The School of Artisan Food honoured Chris with its first Fellowship.

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