The work behind each loaf of bread

Sweeping paddocks of grain crops are a familiar sight across regional Australia, but how many of these crops end up in sandwiches or breakfast bowls?

The average Aussie wheat farmer produces enough grain to make three million loaves of bread and two million tins of Milo. To try and better connect people with where their food comes from, an NFF-led campaign under the Australian Farmers platform aims to connect these dots.

Collaborating with kitchen creative and cookbook authors Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards from Cornersmith, the campaign has put the spotlight on six foods and six farmers who have grown these foods.

Fiona Simson, NFF President, a grain grower from NSW Liverpool Plains, hoped the campaign had opened people’s eyes to the amount of work farmers invest into growing food sustainably.

The focus this week is on bread.

“Cereal grains comprise 21% of the agricultural production pie because they’re incredibly important to feeding Australians and people across the globe. You don’t have to drive far from an Australian city or town to see a grain crop, but how many people consider those crops might just end up as the main ingredient in a bowl of cereal or pasta?” Simson said.

“Australia produces a huge 23 million tonnes of wheat each year. This is used in bread, pasta, pizza dough, cake, instant noodles, dumpling skins and even animal feed,” said Shona Gawel, GrainGrowers CEO.

Bread is one of the most wasted foods in Australian households, so the Cornersmith duo will explain why bread is too precious to waste and show proper methods to store it and what to do if it goes stale.

Brad Jones, a farmer from Western Australia, will be on the program.

From the outset, Jones’s farm looks like any other cropping property, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that it is introducing satellite imaging, has more than 700 soil testing sites and is using a robotic sprayer to reduce chemical use by 95%.

Image credit: iStock.com/jodie777