How did we turn Life Giving Bread into Deadly Franken Bread?
Since ancient Egypt bread has been considered the “staff of Life”: a poetic way of saying bread is a vital food that sustains life. Now our mass produced, over-processed bread is just another junk food that damages our health.[see Appendix] Because bread has been so fundamental to our culture – eg. the central part of of a traditional Church service is the Communion where people eat the “bread of life” – I find it a great metaphor of how our current Industrial Mass Culture has somehow managed to turn almost everything it touches that was once life giving into something toxic and deadly.
A good picture of this transformation of life to death is the Myth of King Midas. He loved gold. He loved it so much that when he was granted one wish from Dionysus, the god of wine and truth, he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. Midas realized his mistake when his food, palace, and daughter were turned to gold. In other words, the power to transform his world into gold – money – had turned life giving gold into death giving gold. Clearly too much power, as gold is money and money is power, is death. Sounds a lot like our culture today. Too much power. Too much money. Everything we touch dies. The rainforests are dying. The Cod in Newfoundland are mostly dead. In the US between 2007 and 2022, fertility rates dropped by about 19%. Today I read that a deadly pathogen is wiping out sea urchins, spreading across oceans, and threatening coral reef ecosystems around the world. We are King Midas, we have been granted the power to turn everything into money and it is killing us and all we touch.
Fortunately, King Midas begged Dionysus to reverse the wish. Dionysus granted Midas release by having him bathe in the Pactolus River. A nice happy ending – except of course for his daughter who had been turned into gold. I wish we had a happy ending. But of course we would first have to ask to have the power to turn everything into gold taken from us. We would have to say NO to money being our #1 priority. We would have to ask to have less stuff and less luxury and less convenience and less leisure. Of course this would mean more work, less wealth, less “its all about me”, reduced immediate gratification. In our current state there is fat chance of that happening. I imagine that we will have to suffer the same fate as King Midas – we will have the kill the thing we care the most about – in his case that was his daughter.
What exactly will that be for us? I have no idea, but I do know it’s going to hurt. A lot. But I also know that if King Midas could give up his gold we can choose to give up our wealth and power IF, and only IF, we see that its killing us and all we love. Really, like King Midas, its a question of life and death. We either choose gold and death or caring for others [eg. His daughter] and life.
A final bit to answer the question we always ask in this “Widget” entitled: “ What are you doing?”. The problem of toxic bread is certainly within anybody’s power to solve: bake your own bread using organic flour. With a bread machine its easy and much, much cheaper and healthier than standard store bought Franken bread. [You can see the Appendix on why I call mass produced bread toxic and why you must use organic flour.] Of course, if you are rich, you can buy lovely sourdough bread at a bakery using organic which is a good option for some. My choice has been to make my own sour dough bread. It takes more time and effort than a Bread machine, but its much yummier and I believe, as bread really is the “staff of life” that making my own bread is life giving activity and well the few minutes it takes to make.
References
Appendix: Franken Bread
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in many herbicides, is a widely used chemical in wheat farming. Initially celebrated for its ability to increase yields and control weeds, glyphosate has become a controversial figure. Its use as a pre-harvest desiccant—sprayed on wheat to dry it faster—has led to detectable residues in grains and, consequently, in bread. Research has linked glyphosate exposure to various health concerns, including endocrine disruption, carcinogenic risks, and gut microbiome disturbances. Despite mounting evidence, regulatory agencies and manufacturers continue to argue that permissible residue levels are “safe.” The consequences are dire, not just for human health but also for ecosystems, soil quality, and biodiversity. Glyphosate residues impact pollinators, water systems, and even the very microbes that make soil fertile. For humanity, the price is seen in rising healthcare costs, loss of consumer trust, and the ethical cost of poisoning the most vulnerable. [1]
Ultra-processed foods are a major part of the Canadian diet, and a new study is indicating these products are contributing to health problems and deaths in the country. The research, published on Tuesday, suggested nearly four in 10 heart disease and stroke deaths are linked to consuming ultra-processed products. According to the most-recent representative data from 2015 in Canada, one of the most ultra-processed foods is commercial bread,”. Ultra-processed foods are products that might include sugar, salt or oil before they’re packaged for sale. This is done to increase a product’s preservation, but typically no other additives are included and the processing is more simple. On the other hand, ultra-processed foods have “many processing steps” — like extrusion, moulding and milling — as well as “additives we may never have in the kitchen,” she explained. [2]
Disappointment with this article, particularly the appendix. I was expecting to see references to sources covering the science of glyphosate exposure. Instead I saw reference to an article from an organic food journal, with identical sentences covering the issue of health risk. I don’t view this as a contribution to the debate. More facts please.