Rolling, jumping, cartwheeling, walking, running on springy green grass meadows is a delightful experience that we have all experienced as children. 'As settlers we walk out of our frustrations. It is on grasslands that human beings acquired that appetite for movement' writes Graham Harvey in 'The Forgiveness of Nature, the story of grass'. 'Homo erectus a homonid, the ancestor to the modern human being, flourished on the dusty savannah grasslands of East Africa. It was Homo erectus that gave rise to the steppe nomads — the Huns and the Mongols — and, via the Bering land bridge, to the tribal nomads of the American praries. Homo sapiens were first and foremost a creature of grass. The association of human beings with grasses has been close and long lasting. No other plant family has played such a dominant role in the advance of the human species. Grasses supply most of the carbohydrate energy in human diets through the major grain crops...then there are the proteins and fats supplied as meat and dairy products from animals that graze pastures.' Indeed civilisation started on grass. Do we care about the humble grass beneath our feet?