Thoughtful joined Doh Boy at the Rise of Real Bread Conference, held at St Anne’s College in Oxford this weekend.

The conference brought together bakers, farmers, scientists, writers, campaigners and retailers to look at the food supply chain behind Britain’s mass-produced bread to ask whether it could be improved. And whether natural bread be made accessible to all?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that ‘real bread’ is only for the rich or those with time on their hands but it’s an important issue. We learnt how majority of Britain’s bread is highly processed – packed with additives, enzymes and fat – designed to be as cheap as possible with the emphasis on shelf-life rather than nutritional content and flavour.

Bee Wilson, food columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and author of SWINDLED: FROM POISON SWEETS TO COUNTERFEIT COFFEE – THE DARK HISTORY OF THE FOOD CHEATS was hugely entertaining. Bee described how in medieval times bread was a serious business. Any baker caught trying to cheat customers would be punished by being dragged around the community on a sleigh with the offending loaf of bread tied around his neck… Bee suggested it should still be the case.