To many of our young child-aged selves, the idea that chocolate milk came from chocolate-colored, aka brown, cows seemed logical. What else could possibly make the sweet drink a different color than the regular version of milk? Thankfully, we all grew up.
Or did we?
According to an online survey performed by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy, 16.4 million, or around 7 percent, of adult Americans don't know it's not just cocoa powder or syrup and a good stir.
While it's easy to poke fun at this ignorance, The Washington Post points out that it shows a gap in the education of Americans and our agricultural industry, which ultimately could affect policy decisions.
In the 1990s, 20 percent of Americans didn't know that hamburgers were made from beef (albeit, the word "ham" could be kind of misleading, right ... right?)
"Right now, we're conditioned to think that if you need food, you go to the store," Cecily Upton, who co-founded nonprofit FoodCorps, told The Washington Post. "Nothing in our educational framework teaches kids where food comes from before that point."
The ones who do know tend to come from higher-income households or live in agricultural communities themselves. But otherwise, children's knowledge of food stops at a carton of milk, box of cereal, or other processed, prepackaged food.
Nutritionists and nonprofits like FoodCorps are working within the movement with the hopes to change the tide in kids' knowledge. Teaching them where exactly our food comes from could lead to healthier future generations.