Hold tight to your baguettes: The French countryside is beginning to lose many of its bakeries. Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to speak about why modern-day consumerism is driving the death of rural bakeries and what this poses for communal camaraderie.
"It's why we go to France — for the village bakery in every town," Kummer said. "We want it to be charming when we go to France. But [the French] are living in the modern world, and the modern world is not good to artisan bakeries."
The increased demand for instant delivery and detached shopping experiences is leading to the closure of many small town bakeries, Kummer said. "People are following the method of ordering Amazon delivery and going to malls because they want convenience. It's happening everywhere."
The closing of bakeries also ends the breaking-of-bread camaraderie that community members share, Kummer added.
"The bakery, in many of these villages, was the last place you could meet people. It's just a natural mingling place and community organizer as opposed to self-service super markets, where you don't really talk to people," he said. "Mayors and various villagers have been trying to reconstitute these [bakeries] because they want a center when they see people in line and meet other villagers."
Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.
