If you tuned in to the Olympic games in Beijing chances are you saw a little piece of home. Almost 100 percent of the grass in China’s largest city -whether on playing fields or in local parks- has been imported from Linn County. The state is the world’s number one producer of grass seed. And recently, China edged out Japan as the biggest customer. China buys more grass seed from Oregon than from anywhere else in the world. Tom Chastain is a professor of crop and soil science at Oregon State University. He says it’s no surprise that China is choosing to get its grass from Oregon. “Oregon is known worldwide for its high-quality turf grass seed, and it’s pretty obvious that the Chinese wanted the very best, given that the Olympics was the showplace and way for China to be shown to the world in general this year.”