The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy commissioned an online poll to determine whether Americans are knowledgeable when it comes to their dairy drink, but the results from adult respondents are shocking.
The online poll, which returned results from across North America, shows that at least 7 percent of Americans believe brown cows produce their much-loved chocolate milk drink. While it is true that the number seems low when compared to the other 93 percent who could be aware of where chocolate milk comes from, 7 percent already translates to roughly 16.4 million people.
The poll was commissioned as part of the celebration for National Dairy Month, which is celebrated every June.
How Now, Brown Cow?
The poll conducted by Edelman Intelligence for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy surveyed over 1,000 respondents aged 18 and above coming from all 50 states.
"Responses came from all 50 states, and the regional response breakdown was fairly even, with a slight uptick (approx. 10 percent higher) in the South," the Innovation Center's spokesperson Lisa McComb confirmed.
According to the survey, 48 percent of respondents did not know where chocolate milk comes from, while 7 percent were confident that it comes from brown cows. Perhaps it is worth taking into consideration that the 7 percent at least know that milk comes from cows, but the result is depressing, nonetheless.
The numbers are interesting, especially since they reflect a huge number of Americans who still believe in some dairy myths in 2017. For the record, however, chocolate milk is the result of combining cocoa, milk from cows of any color and pattern, and sugar.
The survey also returned interesting results when it comes to adult behavior because 29 percent of adults admitted to using their kids as an excuse to buy flavored milk for themselves. Adults also act like kids when milk is involved because 37 percent of respondents confessed that they drank straight from the container when nobody is looking.
Agricultural Knowledge And Awareness
The sad result could also mean many of the respondents decided to be funny with their answers, but then again, several surveys in the past have shown that many Americans are unaware of where their food comes from.
An early 1990s survey conducted for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for instance, showed that one in five Americans did not know that beef is the main ingredient of hamburgers. It's not only cows that don't receive recognition because even kids nowadays don't connect the raw ingredient to the end product, such as cucumbers and pickles.
The disconnect is most likely due to the lack of knowledge on post-production processes and the fact that most food products can be conveniently found packaged in supermarkets.
For those who are left wondering about some other milk products, however, be aware that bunnies and marshmallow chicks don't produce milk.
