Millions of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows

A surprising number of Americans believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, a survey has revealed.

Around 7% of US adults think the sweet flavoured milk is brown due to the colour of cow it comes from, a survey commissioned by the Innovation Centre of US Dairyside has revealed.

The research was conducted on 1,000 people over the age of 18.

That 7% equates to around 16.4 million Americans – which doesn’t seem such a small number when you put it like that.

That’s the equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania who are misinformed chocolate milk drinkers, and do not know that the basic ingredients of chocolate milk consist of milk, cocoa and sugar.

While 7% thought chocolate milk came from brown cows, around 48% of Americans said they didn’t know where chocolate milk came from – we’re not sure which is worse.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Cecily Upton, co-founder of the nonprofit FoodCorps, which brings agricultural and nutrition education into elementary schools, said: “At the end of the day, it’s an exposure issue.

“Right now, we’re conditioned to think that if you need food, you go to the store. 

“Nothing in our educational framework teaches kids where food comes from before that point.”

Thankfully, the survey isn’t verified and hasn’t been released either, so perhaps the state of the agricultural knowledge of Americans isn’t as bad as it seems.

A previous study – conducted in the 1990s – also showed that one in five adults did not know that hamburgers are made of beef, and many lacked knowledge of basic farming facts.

But it seems many children and adults don’t seem too interested in trying to find things out for themselves either.

Upton added: “We still get kids who are surprised that a French fry comes from a potato, or that a pickle is a cucumber.

“Knowledge is power. Without it, we can’t make informed decisions.”

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