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Testing Public Knowledge about Food and Agriculture

Kudos to Bailey Norwood and Susan Murray at Oklahoma State who have keep the Food Demand Survey (FooDS) alive and well.  In the August 2017 edition of FooDS, they asked a series of questions related to consumers knowledge about food.  The results are fascinating.  

First, they sought to weigh in on the claim that went viral last month: that 7% of consumers thought chocolate milk came from brown cows.  In this month's FooDS, they found only 1.6% of the American public held this belief when given various options for how chocolate milk is made.

Read the whole report for more interesting findings, such as:

  • 23% of respondents thought gluten as a preservative or additive to make bread whiter;
  • 79% correctly knew how soy milk is made;
  • 18% think the sun revolves around the earth (yes, you read that right);
  • 95%+ correctly identified broccoli as a vegetable and beef as coming from cows;
  • only 28% correctly knew that Trump likes his steaks well done (a plurality thought he likes it medium rare);
  • 15% thought I was the secretary of agriculture (no I didn't put them up to this; Sonny Perdue was picked by 37% of respondents and Michael Pollan by 29%)
  • 99% of respondents said they took their answers to the previous questions seriously.