Amateur Bread Baker Spearheads Global Loaf-Swapping Initiative

Malin Elmlid, the Swedish author of a book (“The Bread Exchange”) on bartering loaves of bread for items like homemade quince and luggage, got her start accidentally. As a relaxing break from her job in the fashion industry, she started making sourdough bread in 2007. Soon awash in loaves, she shared one with a friend who then thanked her by giving her a spare ticket to a Berlin Philharmonic concert. What else, Elmlid wondered, could she swap for bread? Over the years, the bread exchange idea caught on, and is now a burgeoning global phenomenon. The main reason: bread “has been crucial, its value recognized by all strata of society worldwide”, according to Elmlid.