Transporting the grain from the field to the mill.
Milling
Transporting flour (and at least 3 other ingredients) from the mill to the bakery
Baking, packaging
Transporting the bread from the bakery to the supermarket
Running the supermarket.
Turns out there is a difference between raw wheat and bread. More news at 8.
When farmers get paid too little for their effort, making these wild comparisons isn’t helping. It seems we’re about a year away from the conclusion “I stubbed my toe. This must be capitalism’s fault.”
The second one for sure. But i would also argue that Clarkson himself is only part of the industry to some degree, because primarily he is still in the (quite successful) business of producing television. And while he is certainly learning stuff the actual act of running a farm is still primarily done by others.
On the practical farming side by Kaleb and on the business side by Charlie, who in this case would be the one understanding how the economics between 25p/kg weat and 1.25£ for a loaf of bread work.
Mass production and its effect on unit cost is amazing sometimes. But what is also lost is the transactions between each of those steps. Usually the ones that farm aren't the ones milling, baking, packaging, etc., so there are layers to consider as well, all reducing the unit prices because of the large scale.
That depends on the bread size? From a quick survey of bread recipes online, you need flour and water in a ratio of about 2:1 to 2:1.5. So 1kg of flour gives 1.5kg–1.75kg of dough. I don’t know how much water evaporates during backing, but I think an end product of 1.25kg–1.7kg is a reasonable guess. That’s about a standard sized loaf (to me).