I know this for a fact there's some in my garden. After all, we often demand to know whether a candidate has recovered from open-heart surgery, cancer or a stroke, and many states require elderly drivers to be relicensed. (SOUNDBITE OF GLASS ANIMALS SONG, "CANE SHUGA"). (And of course, I would include the president and vice-president.) The family expressed relief at his having entered politics because none of them thought Dan was smart enough to enter the family business. A recent survey looked into Americans' beliefs about chocolate milk. In his 51st year in the Senate, the 90-year-old's public utterances – as viewable on YouTube – spoke for themselves. According to The Sun, “despite nearly one-fifth of the American states having cattle populations that outstrip the human population and agriculture being one of the country’s biggest industries, Americans remain largely ignorant of where much of their food … RAGALIE-CARR: Less than 2 percent of people in America live on a farm now. Daaaaaaah! After a spate of politicians' resignations, there has been a lot of rhetoric recently from members of Congress about needing to hold their colleagues to a "higher standard" than other citizens. Myth: Chocolate milk comes from brown cows. For most people, the answer is fairly obvious: It’s regular milk mixed with chocolate syrup. A survey of 1,000 people shows 7 percent of participants think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. But I repeat myself," quipped Mark Twain. Cacao beans are seeds from cocoa trees. I asked if he was joking and he assured me he wasn't." Does chocolate milk come from brown cows? Despite What Some May Say, Chocolate Milk Does Not Come From Brown Cows A survey of 1,000 people shows 7 percent of participants think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Does chocolate milk come from brown cows? Testing might help us to weed out a few idiots. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Yet, a survey by the Center showed that a whopping 7 percent of Americans, or 16.4 million people nationwide, still believe that chocolate milk comes directly out of a brown cow. Seven percent of American adults believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a recent online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. There are, of course, numerous far worse examples of public ignorance out there, including many about far more consequential issues. “Does chocolate milk come from brown cows? Most adults know chocolate milk doesn't come from a brown cow, spaghetti doesn't grow on trees and there's no such thing as the "five second rule", but these are still common misconceptions. I asked if he was joking and he assured me he wasn't. You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. CORNISH: Jean Ragalie-Carr is president of the National Dairy Council, which commissioned the survey. Also, banana milk comes from yellow cows and strawberry milk comes from pink cows . A mental status exam by an expert offers an assessment of cognitive abilities, memory and quality of thought processes. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), was sufficiently forthright to reveal in 2007 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal lobar degeneration – an inexorably progressive, incurable disease characterized by the wasting away of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Whether those brown cows are also thought to produce cocoa and sugar is not clear. As a voter and taxpayer, but also as a physician, I worry about whether such people were, or are, fit to serve. Getting rid of the scoundrels and poltroons will have to wait. An intelligence test measures various parameters that are thought to correlate with academic or financial achievement. This joke may contain profanity. Fact: Actually, chocolate milk – or any flavored milk for that matter – is white cow’s milk with added flavoring and sweeteners. SHAPIRO: Yeah, but this is a story about cows. Also, vanilla milk comes from black sheep. Currently serving Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tx.) The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. In one clip, Sen. Byrd maundered; in the second, during a 2001 interview on Fox News Sunday, this former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan was grossly inappropriate, several times using the term "white niggers.". I guess it could come from brown cows...or black or spotted or white...milk is milk then you add the chocolate DUH! Chocolate milk is simply regular milk that’s flavored with cocoa. If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. She says they put that question to a thousand people and gave them several options for how to answer. Did they think there were some pink cows out there? ", Will Rogers addressed the consequences of these deficiencies: "When Congress makes a joke it's a law, and when they make a law, it's a joke. Sadly, seven percent of Americans think so. “Of course not, chocolate milk is made from cocoa beans, some additives and white milk that a normal cow produced” answered the teacher to five-year-old Peter. As he recited from a prepared statement, he included the "stage instructions" – such as "pause for emphasis" – that had been inserted by his speechwriter. With chickens and eggs, the animal's coloring does matter. The most recent Gallup poll found approval of Congress at a dismal 16 percent. Henry Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. SHAPIRO: When Ragalie-Carr and her team got the results... RAGALIE-CARR: (Laughter) I have to say, there were probably a few chuckles in the room as we learned this, you know? And if that percentage sounds small enough to … RAGALIE-CARR: Well, there was brown cows or black-and-white cows, or they didn't know. "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Actually, chocolate milk can come from any kind of dairy cow. Since 48% of people don't even know where chocolate milk comes from, let's address that question, too. Although it is moral turpitude that has been prominent lately, there are other severe defects in our politicians. A friend of mine was seated at a banquet table with the family of then-Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kansas). Chocolate milk isn’t chocolaty because it comes from brown cows—just as strawberry milk isn’t obtained from pink cows, in case that also needed clarification. Intoxication? But it did make me wonder what they thought about strawberry milk. The journalist and satirist H.L. I attended a conference at which Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), then chairman of the powerful House Commerce Committee, spoke by teleconference. Chocolate milk gets its color and flavor from cacao beans. It does. "), and higher reasoning, such as the ability to interpret proverbs abstractly ("A stitch in time saves nine."). The answer did not surprise dietitians, who discuss several common misconceptions related to food. In other words, chocolate milk does not come from brown cows. Congressman John Salazar (D-Col.) related this anecdote: “When I was debating what became the 2008 Farm Bill, I had a member of the Agriculture Committee actually ask me if chocolate milk really comes from brown cows. Dairy says 7 percent of American adults believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows - for real. According to The Washington Post, this equates to roughly 16.4 million adults — slightly more than the Pennsylvania population. Who knows where it is headed in the wake of the many recent resignations from the House and Senate and the furor over accused sexual harasser and child molester Roy Moore refusing to withdraw from the Alabama Senate race. And the kicker: In this context, if only 7 percent of respondents thought chocolate milk came from brown cows, shouldn’t the real story be that 93 percent thought it either came only from black-and-white cows or had no idea how chocolate milk was made? Fun fact: 7% of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. SHAPIRO: Seven percent of Americans thought that. All milk, chocolate or not, comes from cows of all varieties. 'Illegal Alien' or 'Undocumented Immigrant'. 1 0 All rights reserved. Senility? And we go to this giant grocery store. It may feel a … A survey from the Innovation Center for U.S. In and of itself, ignorance is not a problem. Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. So people out there have a very high level of interest but a very low level of understanding. It's no coincidence that the intelligence of members of Congress has so often been spoofed. Dairy. Armstrong had, of course, left the flag on the moon, not on Mars. And then there was nonagenarian Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving senator in American history. ", That's in the same category as the concern of Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) that stationing 8,000 U.S. military personnel on Guam would cause the small island to "become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.". No. 93% of American adults think chocolate milk should come from white male cows. Carelessness? After Parler Ban, Rein in Big Tech Now or Cease Being Free Citizens, Trump's Censorship of Science Will Kill People, Robert Reich: Tax Plan's Payback For Billionaire Donors. It includes assessments of alertness, speech, behavior, awareness of environment, mood, affect, rationality of thought processes, appropriateness of thought content (presence of delusions, hallucinations, or phobias), memory, ability to perform simple calculations, judgment ("If you found a letter on the ground in front of a mailbox, what would you do with it? Myth: Chocolate milk is not as nutritious as white milk. CIMPERMAN: White eggs simply come from chickens with white earlobes and generally white feathers. A survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Fact: No matter what the flavor, milk will always be the same delicious and nutritious beverage that provides nine essential nutrients. ", There are numerous examples of the joke being on us. That said, any adults thinking chocolate milk comes from brown cows is too many. We see everything all packaged and placed nicely on the shelves, and we don't really understand what it takes to get it there. A survey has found an astonishing number of Americans think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Henry I. Miller On 12/23/17 at 8:40 AM EST . Does Chocolate Milk Come From Brown Cows? I had great sympathy for Mr. Domenici, but should the people of New Mexico have been represented for another year by a senator who admitted to suffering from progressive dementia? I believe he should have resigned at the time his illness was diagnosed. But according to a survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. The answer is polite and clear- they explain that chocolate milk is white cow’s milk with added flavoring and sweeteners. And after eight ice cream comes from green and brown cows together. No, seriously. See why nearly a quarter of a million subscribers begin their day with the Starting 5. In fact, about half of 1,000 people polled said they weren’t sure where chocolate milk comes from. Accuracy and availability may vary. The Post notes that the finding fits a general pattern of Americans being a bit fuzzy on where their food comes from. Case in point, a recent survey by The Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy found that 7% of American adults think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. (Automobile and appliance shredding and scrap metal. ” Apparently millions of Americans are under the impression that the answer is yes, yes it does. A new survey found that seven percent of Americans believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. SHAPIRO: Jokes aside, she says it shows how disconnected we are from where our food comes from. To continue reading login or create an account. And where one line had been inadvertently duplicated, Bliley read it a second time. And a member of the House Science Committee, during a visit to the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Lab, asked a NASA scientist whether the Mars Pathfinder probe had photographed the flag that astronaut Neil Armstrong left behind in 1969. Former U.S. Share. More than 7 percent of Americans believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a survey commissioned by the Innovation Center … CORNISH: Registered dietitian Lisa Cimperman says while she thinks some people were having a little fun with their answer, she's also not surprised that some might think chocolate milk comes from a brown cow. ), Former U.S. The elusive quality of "electability" seems not to correlate with truthfulness, integrity, courage or intelligence, but only with a certain affability – and with the ability to raise campaign funds. Does Chocolate Milk Come From Brown Cows? For instance, a Department of Agriculture study from the 1990’s found that almost 1 in 5 adults didn’t know hamburgers were beef. LISA CIMPERMAN: More and more individuals are living in suburbs or cities. According to the survey, 7 percent of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows while 48 percent were unaware of how it is made. Having cast their votes at the ballot box, the vast majority of Americans are unhappy with their choices. Mencken observed, "Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.". Congressman John Salazar (D-Col.) related this anecdote: "When I was debating what became the 2008 Farm Bill, I had a member of the Agriculture Committee actually ask me if chocolate milk really comes from brown cows. Every politician need not be a genius, but I'd like the ones who represent me to be smarter than the average person in the supermarket or laundromat. How? By asking candidates and incumbents to volunteer for periodic intelligence and mental status testing. Fourty-eight percent don't know where it comes from at all. JEAN RAGALIE-CARR: When we asked them, where does chocolate milk come from, they indicated that they thought it came from brown cows. it would be cool though i the milk from a brown cow came out as chocolate milk! Opinion Trump Daca Putin Russia. However, the same teacher could be wrong in the near future. Copyright © 2017 NPR. A cow in the In the Abondance valley in the Haute-Savoie, France, 30 kilometres to the south of Lake Geneva and on the threshold of the Portes du Soleil. Gillis van de Zande November 30th 2012. Refreshing Delicious Chocolate Milk with Real Cocoa Getty Images It's a real survey, though, which found that 7 percent of American adults surveyed … If only cows could help set the record straight about this next story. Quick: Where does chocolate milk come from? And brown eggs generally come from chickens with red or brownish feathers and red earlobes. In news that may not surprise some, a massive 7 per cent of Americans allegedly believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Stupidity? Dairy, 7 percent of Americans think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows… Perhaps we should treat dissatisfaction with our representation as a medical, rather than a solely political, issue. It certainly does nothing to undermine the need for … Milk is produced by cows raised for the dairy industry. No manned spacecraft has visited Mars. Milton Berle observed, "You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think. In fact, far from a higher standard, we continue to elect and e-elect scoundrels, liars and the intellectually challenged. once proclaimed that the U.S. Constitution is 400 years old. Chocolate milk is made when cocoa beans, grounded up and mixed with plenty of sugar and other additives, is mixed with normal whole white cow's milk. Brown cows make the same kind of milk as black and white Holstein cows and reddish Devon cows. So again, for the record, chocolate milk is white milk mixed with chocolate. Chocolate milk is made from cow’s milk and flavouring or sweeteners. Importantly, none of this disproves the notion that some adults believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. CORNISH: And she leaves us with this fun fact. Because of the behavioral changes and dementia that accompany this condition, Domenici announced that he would not seek reelection the following year. How now brown cow? Dairy uncovered the fact that some Americans are pretty disconnected from how their food travels from the farm to their table.. Be in its final form and may be updated or revised in Senate... 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