"Winter Wheat"
The cover features an oil painting by the Cambridge based artist, Glynn Gorick.
Progressing from right to left, it shows the growth stages of a winter wheat crop. Wheat has been cultivated for thousands of years and has become one of the world's principal food crops. The leaves harness sunlight energy to make food which is stored in seeds. A single seed is shown using this store to make new roots and leaves.
There is a change of scale from top to bottom, moving from the earth's atmosphere and coastal outline down to the microstructure of top soil. The soil crumbs consist of large sand grains and minute particles of clay (further magnified); soil moisture appears as thin films of water around the particles.
Large scale agriculture can lead to soil erosion and also threatens the environment with its high inputs of fossil fuel and agro-chemicals. Each growing season, the bottom left part of this picture will "vanish" - the wheat seed to the grain silos, and, irreversibly, twice its weight in top soil to wind and water erosion. The scientific study of these processes, and the underlying eco-systems, is vital if we are to make them productive and sustainable.
