What Does This Loaf Say About Us?

Some time ago, I reflected on an essay by the American writer Henry Miller. The piece was called “The Staff of Life,” a rousing screed about the state of bread in the U.S. in the early 1940s. Miller, who had just returned from a decade of living in Europe, set out on a road trip to re-acquaint himself with the nation and its soul and culture. He used bread, the “staff of life,” as a bell-weather for the country’s spiritual and psychological well-being.

What he found was not encouraging. He was not kind to his country. He offered only failing grades for its bread and the nation’s psyche. And he pulled no punches.

“Bread: prime symbol,” Miller began.

“Try and find a good loaf. You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread. Americans don’t care about good bread. They are dying of inanition, but they go on eating bread without substance, bread without flavour, bread without vitamins, bread without life. Why? Because the very core of life is contaminated. If they knew what good bread was, they would not have such wonderful machines on which they lavish all their time, energy and affection. A plate of false teeth means much more to an American than a loaf of good bread.”

Knee-slapping, barbed

“The Staff of Life” is a terrific rant against the core of North American society (I’m guessing Miller would have included Canada here) that is at once knee-slapping hilarious but also vicious in its critique—barbed and unrelenting.

The essay was originally part of the second volume of The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1947), an account of his year-long trip across America. We may think things have changed in the decades since it was published. But the more I consider, the more I believe Miller’s rant is still on point in 2024.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a thought-provoking article that looked inside the ultra-processed food industry. It looks at what some industrial bread companies are doing to mass-produce cheap bread that has a long shelf life and is nutritious all at once.

Plastic bread

The WSJ article is called: “We Bought This Bread in April. It Still Looks Fine: Culinary engineering has transformed this staple of the American diet.”

It opens with a photo of a caramel-coloured loaf of “plastic bread” displayed on a clean gingham tablecloth against a sky-blue background.

The loaf looks enticing. It’s soft and relatively fresh, ready to be used in a grilled cheese sandwich or toasted with butter and jam. In reality, it’s far from fresh. The caption reads that the bread was purchased in April this year and photographed June 18. Its “Best Before” date was May 17.

The WSJ’s reporting is meticulous, balanced, and informative. It doesn’t explicitly take sides in the debate between industrial and artisan bakers. I found the article interesting from an abstract perspective, but I’ll never be able to accept Wonder Bread as anything but a “bread-like product.” Plastic foam is something to be avoided at all costs.

150 loaves a minute

The scale of the industrialized bread industry is staggering. A few North American bakery behemoths make up a $14 billion industry. High-speed factories can churn out 150 loaves or 800 hamburger buns per minute.

Along the production line, emulsifiers, dough conditioners, and other ingredients are injected to strengthen bread dough so it can withstand the manufacturing process. Mono- and diglycerides offer softness and volume. Preservatives like calcium propionate extend bread’s shelf life by preventing mould growth.

However, artisan bakers and health experts have grave concerns about assembly-line bread. The simplicity and traditional methods artisan bakers use, such as the natural ingredients with all their perceived health benefits (bread, water, salt at its base), make for healthier, better-tasting bread. That’s not mentioning flavour, which beats a slice of Wonder Bread hands down any day of the week.

Conversely, potential health risks associated with ultra-processed foods, such as obesity and diabetes, are leading to a growing consumer demand for cleaner labels and more natural ingredients.

Change is slow

Some bread manufacturers are gradually shifting towards natural mould inhibitors and enzymes, aiming to replace chemical additives that do the same thing more effectively. However, balancing affordability, convenience, and nutrition still needs to be within reach for industrialists. Ongoing debates on the definition of ultra-processed foods influence industry practices and dietary guidelines.

According to the WSJ article, change is slow. Natural alternatives to mould inhibitors—like calcium propionate, for instance—are more expensive and less effective.

Calcium propionate is a powder that is cheaper and easier to handle than natural mould inhibitors like raisin juice—a thick, sticky liquid that can clog a bakery’s operations. Cultured wheat, another alternative, can be several times the cost.

“It’s just like a new drug”

One industry veteran said she spent years testing natural mould inhibitors.

“It’s just like a new drug,” the industry veteran said. “You have to pay for the R&D.”

I kept hearing the words of Henry Miller as I read this article.

He would say that the predominance of lousy bread is symptomatic of something more profound. If food isn’t consumed for its nourishment (for nothing is nourishing about most North American bread) or its enjoyment, nothing is to be gained. The best diet in the world is useless if a person has no appetite, enthusiasm, or sensuality.

“Day by day, the morons, epileptics and schizoids multiply. By accident, like everything else. Nothing is planned in America except improvements. And all improvements are for the machine. When a plenum is reached, war is declared. Then, the machine really gets going. War is a Roman Holiday for the machine. Man becomes even less than nothing then. The machine is well fed. The food products become plastics, and plastics are what make the world go round. Better to have a good steering wheel than a good stomach.”

Honest truth-telling

It’s unlikely Miller’s “The Staff of Life” would be published in its current form today. Book publishers and magazine editors would clip his wings or try to. Like much of his writing, the essay is “out-there”: borderline racist, politically incorrect, and sure to offend some people.

But this is honest truth-telling, a valid critique of some aspects of society that was true in the 1940s and still valid today. It’s constructive commentary meant to raise our consciousness and point toward things that matter, something that we have lost sight of mid-way through 2024. And I am glad Henry Miller was allowed by his publishers to soar with his words, his razor intellect and, ultimately, his optimism.

“Eat your bread first, then maybe you won’t want to work in an office or a factory. Life begins with bread. And a prayer. Not a begging prayer, but a prayer of thanks. Don’t bless the blockbusters. Bless God for his favours — air, water, sun, moon.

“God wants you to enjoy the bread of life. He never meant you to go out all day working at a job you loathe so that you can buy a loaf of store bread wrapped in cellophane. God gave us germs as well as air, water and sun. Germs attack only what is already rotting. Man is rotting in every fibre of his being; that is why he is prey to germs. And that is why he is allergic to everything that is for his own good.”

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