View from The Wainstones

As the early morning clouds swirled around the tops of the Cleveland Hills the ubiquitous yellow fields of rapeseed dominated the view onto the plain below.

Rapeseed was originally only grown for machine oil as it was too bitter for human consumption but new strains developed in the 70s made the oil more palatable. In 2013 2.1 million tons were produced in the UK, just under 3% of the world production. Nowadays it is grown for animal feed, biofuel and of course cooking oil.