My recent visit to Morocco, examining the impact of bread on the environment, internally on our gut microbiome and externally on our environment, really brought home the importance of changing how we make our bread. I’m conscious of my own carbon footprint when I’m travelling. It’s an uncomfortable truth, and I try to offset it as much as possible. However, to examine how our bread is made, and perhaps in some ways to safeguard some of the traditions that are being lost and inspire people to change, I am subject to creating carbon. In every area of my life, I keep my impact on the planet minimal, and I am not unaware of the conflict of getting to understand and share understanding with my impact in doing so. I hope that the sum of my work influences the change needed to offset the carbon I create in doing so.

Much of the flour I saw in Morocco was white roller-milled imported flour

Only when you get up close and see the impact on people do you realise how real and fast the change is happening. Climate change in Morocco is significantly impacting the country with increasing temperatures. I was told about 47C in the summer, reduced rainfall, and frequent droughts. These changes affect water resources, agriculture, and food security, exacerbating existing environmental and socio-economic challenges.

Climate change is projected to persist both in the medium and long term, impacting how they grow their wheat—to put it simply, they cannot grow wheat at the moment. The wheat I saw in the bakeries was imported, but the local barley is in use as it is more resilient.

The increase in the price of grain and shortage means the Morrocan government is currently subsidising grain. According to the news, the Moroccan government has already implemented import subsidies for up to 2.5 million metric tons of supplies shipped between January 1 and April 30, 2024. Food shortage and climate change can be dangerous political situations. With 30% of the workforce being employed by the agricultural sector, further droughts make for a political tinderbox. What is clear to me is that climate change drives desperation and fuels extremism. Morocco is thankfully stable; the people are warm and engaging and have respect for their way of life, but climate change is driving higher poverty, and I think we have to wake up to the fact that the way we currently produce our grain, relying on agrochemicals and the petrochemical industry not only damages the planet, but it drives global political instability.

Systems change is about changing the way that we approach our Bread.

There are many arguments for baking with sustainably produced grains, not simply because of the impact on our own countryside and health. Perhaps the most powerful one is that we have to maximise the nourishment from our crops not only to reduce our environmental impact but also to make bread to support our gut and mental health. If we do not have gut health, our brains cannot function correctly, and we stop caring about the environment. It’s a vicious circle.

Our use of agrochemicals needs to change, but so does our throwing away or giving animals the most nutritious part of the grain. To me, this is the very definition of insanity.

Beyond wasted bran discarded during flour refinement, bread is second only to potatoes as the most wasted food item in the UK – some 24 million slices of bread are binned daily. This not only has social and economic impacts but also substantial environmental ones. The FAO has painted a picture: if food waste were a country, it would be the third-highest emitter of green gas.

Understanding the Bread Industry: A Call to Re-evaluate Our Food Choices

In contemplating the vast scope of our bread and food production industry, it becomes evident that a fundamental shift in our approach to bread-making and consumption is needed now – not in a decade .. but we bakers have be the change. As consumers and as bakers must recognise and value the most crucial part of the grain: the bran.

A kernel of wheat consists of three parts, two of which can be considered by-products of the white flour milling process: the bran (the outer covering of the kernel, rich in fibre) and the germ (the innermost part of the kernel, high in fat). During this roller-milling process, which discards both the germ and the bran, we throw away 20% or more of the grain depending on the milling extraction rate. Of this milled-off bran, only 10% is repurposed to supplement dietary fibre in cereals and baked goods. The rest could be sold off as animal feed, but millers often dispose of the bran as waste due to high transport costs. There is a profound irony in the current industry practice of expending energy to discard bran, arguably the most nutritious part of the grain. This approach seems almost insane. Many farmers and millers, who are integral to our food system, find themselves in a paradox where they are forced to dispose of bran – often at a cost or with minimal return and another local organic mill commendably utilises bran as food for maggots, yet the financial compensation is minimal.

When stepping back to view this system, I am reminded of a poignant phrase from the film “Forrest Gump”: “Stupid is as stupid does.” This saying resonates profoundly with our current situation. If extraterrestrial beings were to observe our practices, they might well be baffled at our shortsightedness and quick-fix mentality, especially regarding our basic food. The majority of bread available, categorised under the NOVA food score, is deemed ultra-processed. This pervasive consumption of such products drives us towards a dual crisis: environmental unsustainability and a deterioration in our physical and mental health. The neglect of our gut microbiome, which plays a crucial role in producing metabolites essential for brain and gut function, is alarming.

The statistics and insights provided below aim to illuminate the scale and impact of the bread industry. I hope that this knowledge will serve as a wake-up call, inspiring a re-evaluation of our approach to bread. By understanding its pivotal role, we can work towards saving both ourselves and our planet.

It is estimated that up to 30% of the food we produce is lost or wasted every year – in the US alone, that equates to 32.6 million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). Growing and producing food, transporting and storing it for purchase, cooking food, and baking bread uses land, energy, fuel and water, emitting greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change. At the landfill, as food rots, it generates methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas.

According to estimates provided in the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021, if we worked together to cut down on food waste, we could reduce 8–10% of GHGE caused by humans.

Fueling the diabetes epidemic.

Without the fibrous bran, the grain is easier to chew. Due to its fat content, the germ is stripped out to extend its shelf life, which becomes rancid with oxidation. What remains is the soft, carbohydrate-rich, easy-to-digest endosperm. According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, when we refine wheat, we toss away usable food and virtually all the fibre, but we also leave other good stuff on the table – half of the B vitamins and 90 per cent of the vitamin E. This wasteful practice occurs against the backdrop of a global epidemic of lifestyle-related diseases. These ailments often stem from a dearth in our diet – a lack of fibre and polyphenols, essential for gut microbiome health. Bran, abundant in prebiotics, hemicellulose, cellulose, and arabinoxylan, among other nutrients, is a cost-effective, nutritious, and sustainable option for enhancing gut microbial health. Yet, astonishingly, it is being discarded.

The resulting highly processed flour is much lower in nutritional quality (requiring fortification). But other components, like phytochemicals, are lost for good. Phytochemicals are designed to help plants grow and protect them from pathogens, competitors and predators. As a result, when we ingest these plants, these bioactive compounds behave as antioxidants designed to scavenge free radicals – the highly reactive molecules produced from the everyday metabolism of our cells and a natural by-product of the toxic inputs we receive. These phytochemicals, as antioxidants, help to prevent further damage to our cells and protect us from a state of inflammation and disease. If you’d like to read more on phytochemicals, you can view our slides on phytochemicals here.

Recent research looking at the potential of wheat bran fibre for biocomposite production (a filler in starch-based films) from the flour refinement process shows that using bran in this way could lower the overall environmental impact, including global warming and fossil fuel depletion. Here, bran fibre would replace polypropylene, eliminating the carbon dioxide emissions that come from bran degradation.

Personally, I would prefer we did not remove it at all, and we simply use it in the bread that we bake, eat and share.