‘In New Zealand more than in any country in the world we find justification for the words of the Bible, “All flesh is as [sic] grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.”’ So began the issue on pasture land of the Making New Zealand pictorial survey to mark New Zealand's centenary in 1940. This biblical phrase had multiple meanings for New Zealanders, in relation to ‘ecological imperialism’, feeding Britain, and the sacrifice of its best young men in war.

English grasses were imported to New Zealand, to be re-exported as frozen meat and dairy products, in an imperial food chain. The biblical reference suggests that New Zealand was indeed a land of milk and honey. This reference also became an anthem, sung at Anzac Day services. New Zealand not only processed imperial grass seed into flesh and blood, but the flesh of the flower of its manhood died for king and country at Gallipoli and on the Western Front in World War I.