Cereal grains swelling in a ripening field of barley in Teesdale, under a thundery summer sky. Ten thousand years ago our Neolithic ancestors first cultivated cereal crops in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East, paving the way for farming systems where the many would come to depend for their staple food on the efforts of a few. A ripening wheat or barley field is such a familar sight that we tend to take the skills of the plant breeders, agronomists and farmers for granted - even though most of us are totally dependent on them.
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