by Michael Smith
Local environmental campaigners, from all around the UK and from around the world, are supporting Resurgence Slow Sunday on September 28th where they will be baking bread as an act of defiance against commercial bread. Why not join in?
Resurgence Slow Sunday (www.resurgence.org) is a campaign from readers and supporters of the international environmental magazine Resurgence, edited by Satish Kumar. The aim is to encourage people to take part in small acts of defiance for the environment within their own communities.
In our recent past, Sunday was a day of rest – a day of reflection. With the Slow Sunday approach it is aimed to make Sunday a day where we consume less, reduce our food miles and our carbon footprint and also make it a day when we engage with our family, friends and local community. This is where small, simple actions, like baking bread, can make a significant difference to our immediate environment and the planet as a whole. It is about acting locally but thinking globally.
Bake locally – think globally
Baking bread is not as difficult as many people think. If you can boil an egg, you can bake bread. It may be a small action but it’s also a simple way of making an environmental statement and taking a stand. The power of local action – many small actions at a local level – can bring about big change at a global level.
But what has baking bread got to do with saving the planet?
The Resurgence Slow Sunday is inspired by two of the most profound philosophies of our time – Schumacher’s ‘Small is beautiful’ and Gandhi’s ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. Big change is possible though small, meaningful actions at a local level. It is only by changing our immediate environment that we can pave the way for change on a larger scale. In other words, we can make the world a better place, but it will only happen when large numbers of people join together and practice what they believe in. And, in the same way that Gandhi made spinning an act of defiance against oppressive colonialism, for Resurgence Slow Sunday on September 28th, the organizers are asking consumers to make good, healthy home-baked bread a symbol of environmentalism.
Three reasons why baking bread is a seemingly small step, with potentially enormous environmental consequences:
- Only 4% of bread is baked in small, neighbourhood bakeries. And almost 90% of bread is mass-produced in factory conditions. Thirteen big manufacturers control bread market in the UK which accounts for £3 billion a year. Nearly ten million loaves of bread are sold in the UK every day; their daily delivery clocking up an enormous carbon footprint. This is bread is full of enzyme-based ‘processing aids’ that by law don’t have to appear on the label.
- In addition it has to be said that most, if not indeed all, of the bread “baked”, or should we better say, manufactured, by those mass-production system is tasteless for sure.
- Bread diversity is a symbol of cultural diversity. Regional varieties represented grain diversity as well as diversity of style. At one time, this bread was available on your doorstep from your local baker.
- Baking bread is an act of meditation. Through this simple action we are able to slow down, pay attention and reconnect with tradition. It is something to share and to celebrate.
For more simple recipes and further information on Resurgence Slow Sunday go to www.resurgence.org
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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