The price of bread
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This global food staple used to account for half of some people's income. Dr Kaori O’Connor a food anthropologist at University College, London, explains how it became central to so many of our diets. Plus we’ll hear from Dominique Anract, President of the National Confederation of French Bakers who explains some of the rules of the bread industry. Renowned chef, Francisco Migoya tells us about recreating Roman loaves, and we hear from James Slater from Puratos who uses ancient grains to develop modern flours. Kevan Roberts spills the secrets of gluten-free baking and consultant Azmina Govindji tells us that carbs are not an evil that needs to be avoided.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I can get myself a nice bushel to go along with I get in bed |
| 0:05.7 | I can get myself a nice mother but I can't get a nice loaf of bread |
| 0:12.0 | Welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service with me Elizabeth Hotson |
| 0:18.5 | And I'm going to start with a question |
| 0:20.8 | When was the last time you had a nice loaf of bread? with me, Elizabeth Hotson. And I'm going to start with a question. |
| 0:24.5 | When was the last time you had a nice loaf of bread? |
| 0:29.3 | Many of us eat bread every day and it's so much more than just a global food staple. |
| 0:32.1 | Bread's kicked off riots and revolutions. |
| 0:36.4 | Wars have been fought over it and it's central to many religious stories. |
| 0:39.4 | The price of bread is often used as a symbol of economic might or weakness. Post-war hyperinflation in Germany meant that a loaf cost |
| 0:45.8 | the equivalent of a hundred billion dollars by the end of 1923. And in the early 2000s, Zimbabwe, |
| 0:52.5 | which used to be known as the Bread Basket of Africa, |
| 0:55.4 | saw its citizens use wheelbarrows of cash to pay for their daily bread. |
| 0:59.5 | But why is bread so fundamental to human existence across the globe? |
| 1:03.6 | And could its place in society, the breakfast, lunch and dinner table, |
| 1:08.0 | and everything in between be under threat from new food fashions. |
| 1:12.7 | It is a symbol of culture, of civilization and also divine favour. In every culture it's thank you |
| 1:20.1 | to the heavens for giving us this grain, which is our daily bread. Every culture has got the |
| 1:26.0 | equivalent of our daily bread. Dr. C Carey O'Connor is a food |
| 1:30.7 | anthropologist at University College, London. Bread we owe everything to. You see it in Mesopotamia |
| 1:37.6 | thousands of years ago where the great cities, the first cities in the world, are literally built on bread and beer. |
| 1:46.7 | And what they used to do is taunt their enemies saying, |
... |
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