For food lovers everywhere, there is nothing more disheartening than opening a pack of bread to reveal a rectangular, colourless block of carbohydrate. You all know what I mean: undercooked, starched monstrosities that should not be allowed to be called ‘bread’, but somehow it has made its way into our supermarkets while real bread is left to be championed by independent bakers.

Well, the folks of the Real Bread Campaign decided that more needed to be done to promote the humble artisan breads of the world, and began by setting out their aims.

Part of the charity, Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, the Real Bread Campaign is the national organisation that brings together everyone who cares about the current state of bread in Britain. The Real Bread Campaign seeks to increase the popularity of, you guessed it, real bread, being bread that is made with 100% natural ingredients, without the use of any artificial additives.

They also seek to find ways of making bread better for us, better for our communities and ultimately, better for the planet. One of the easiest ways of doing the former is simply by promoting breads made the traditional way by local independent bakeries, as opposed to the bleached oblongs you see littering supermarket shelves on a daily basis.

The Real Bread Campaign brings together everyone who cares about the current state of bread in Britain

The Real Bread Campaign’s main initiatives are as follows:

• Lessons in Loaf, a scheme to encourage bread making classes in schools.
• The book Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter, the guide to success in baking Real Bread for your local community. 
• Helping to put Real Bread on the Menu of more schools, care homes and other public sector institutions, as well as for community food groups and other food access projects.
• The Real Bread Finder, helping Real Bread bakers to promote, and people to find, local loaves
• The Real Bread Loaf Mark: an at-a-glance assurance from a baker to busy shoppers that 'this is Real Bread'
• Bake Your Lawn: helping kids to follow the Real Bread journey from seed to sandwich by showing them how to take a handful of wheat and grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.

Sadly, long gone are the days when all loaves were made by local Real Bread bakers or in our own ovens using nothing but natural ingredients, time and care. Between the 1950s and the 2000s, the number of small craft bakeries plummeted from 18,000 to fewer than 5,000, taking many skilled local jobs with them. Today, only around 3-5% of the loaves we buy coming from small, independent craft bakeries.

The majority are produced by just a handful of industrial manufacturers, usually using a cocktail of artificial additives, perhaps hidden added enzymes and higher levels of yeast than traditional baking. Methods are also now used that don't allow the dough to develop in its own time.  It is possible that one or more of these are factors in the problems some people report after eating industrial loaves.

Between the 1950s and the 2000s, the number of small craft bakeries plummeted from 18,000 to fewer than 5,000

Aside from trying to get people to eat real bread, the campaign seeks to help bring bread back to the heart of all local communities: you can get involved with this by setting up a micro-bakery in your own kitchen or joining with others to organise a community supported bakery.

Jane Mason had had enough of her career in the City, and so decided to quit and set up VirtuousBread.com, where she helps people to become ‘Bread Angels’. These Angels are comprised of a network of people up and down the country who run their very own home baking business: they not only bring real bread to people in areas where there is none, but also build relationships in their local communities by getting to know the people and businesses close to them. Some even go on to train other Bread Angels in the art of bread-making.

Baking real bread for your local community is a great way both to supplement your income and develop the health and welfare of your local community

"Baking real bread for your local community is a great way both to supplement your income and develop the health and welfare of your local community" says Jane.

“Many people do our home bakers course mainly because they are searching for a fulfilling way of earning some extra money, working at home, and meeting their neighbours. People realise that it is almost impossible to get real bread in most communities in Britain. This is a fantastic way of rectifying that in a highly personal and meaningful way", she continues.

Community Supported Bakeries have many benefits, including discounts on bread making courses around the country, membership of a mutually-supportive network of Real Bread bakers and other bread lovers, quarterly issues of the campaign’s exclusive magazine, True Loaf, and 33% off the price of Knead to Know.

If you are fed up with industrial loaves and would like to see REAL bread brought back to local communities, join the campaign today here.