You won'y belive this, but you need dirt for diamonds! Because for diamonds you need iron and for iron you need stone and for stone you need wood and for wood you need trees and trees grow on dirt! You also need it for emeralds. You can use dirt for a wheat farm, so you can have bread. There is a trade of 28 wheat for an emerald.

If you are new to minecraft or  you cant build a house in time for nightfall, you can quickly get some dirt. I think you should have a roof so spiders can't get in. You might say you can use sand for your first home, but the roof would collapse. Wheat iisn't the only food you can grow. You can get potatoes or carrots and eat them all up! I'm not 100% sure it's the same as mycelium (mushroom biome grass) but you can tell me in the comments. I suppose it's less useful since you can't grow normal trees on it (I think)!

That is it for today, it was quite short but it doesn't matter! See ya!