It's gonna be a bun fight: The Big Bread Debate

In the week that the Advertising Standards Authority declared an industrial baker using a photo of hands kneading dough to advertise its factory loaves was not misleading, the Real Bread Campaign and the Soil Association host The Cake & Bake Show’s debate.

Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Andrew Webb, the debate starts in the Earl's Court event’s bakery theatre at 4pm on Sunday 23 September.  With An Honest Crust? as its theme, topics will include:

• Do you believe that everything that goes into a loaf should appear on the wrapper or shelf label?   
• What hidden costs might lie behind the low till price of an industrial 'value' loaf?   
• Should there be legal definitions for bread-related terms including 'artisan', 'craft', 'freshly-baked', 'sourdough', ‘wholegrain’ and even 'bread'?  

The panel will include Judges' Bakery and Green & Blacks founder Craig Sams, and experts from the Campaign. The major supermarkets and the ‘Big Three’ industrial bakers have been invited to send representatives to balance the panel. Visitors are invited to contribute more questions at stand 168 throughout the weekend and during the debate.

Doughmongering dons
Making good on the show organiser’s promise that the weekend would not be just about cupcakes, the event is studded with demonstrations and talks from Real Bread experts. Campaign ambassadors and members helping visitors to get more out of their loaf life include:

• Paul Barker: Cinnamon Square
• Richard Bertinet: The Bertinet Kitchen and Bakery, Dough and Crust
• Aidan Chapman: The Phoenix Bakery, The Soulful Baker
• Duncan Glendinning: The Thoughtful Bread Company, Bread Revolution
• Tom Herbert: Hobbs House Bakery, The Fabulous Baker Brothers
• Patrick Ryan: The Firehouse Bakery and Bread School, Bread Revolution
• Ben Mackinnon: The E5 Bakehouse
• Patrick Moore: More? Artisan

Part of the charity Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, the Real Bread Campaign is fighting for better bread in Britain.  The Campaign’s basic definition of Real Bread is that made without artificial additives. From this simple and universally accessible starting point, the Campaign seeks, finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

ENDS

For more information please contact Chris Young: chris [at] sustainweb.org or 0203 5596 777
www.realbreadcampaign.org       twitter.com/realbread     facebook.com/realbreadcampaign

Notes

Highlights of Campaign successes to date:

Since we launched our membership scheme in September 2009, more than 1000 people have joined the Real Bread Campaign, either on behalf of bakeries and other enterprises or as individuals

We sold all 1000 copies of Knead to Know, our book on how to start a Real Bread bakery, in just one year and we continue to receive donations for the PDF download version every week.

Of 100 Knead to Know readers we asked in March 2012, 22 people had stared their Real Bread business since reading the book and a further 39 were planning to do so.

In spring 2012, we sent 280 packets of organic wheat seeds to more than 200 schools, along with our Bake Your Lawn guide on how to grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.

Thanks to our Lessons in Loaf scheme, more than 4000 children at more than 85 schools have learned how to bake Real Bread at school.

The Campaign has inspired Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to put locally-baked organic Real Bread On The Menu at 26 schools and nurseries in the borough.

More than 90 bakeries have signed up to use The Real Bread Loaf Mark to give their customers an at-a-glance assurance that their loaves are made without artificial additives.

More than 460 bakeries have added their loaves to our Real Bread Finder map.

In July 2010, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld the Campaign’s complaint that an ad for Tesco in-store bakeries was misleading.