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If you read that title and thought that, yes, obviously they know where milk comes from, you may be surprised to find out that one in five children actually don’t know that milk comes from cows.
New research from Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons has revealed some of the strange things that children believe about their food – with over ten percent of boys aged between four and eight believing that milk comes straight from the supermarket, not actually questioning where it originally came from.
Add to that that twenty percent of five year olds believe that chocolate is made from eggs and almost a third of children think that cows eat sandwiches and I’m sure you’ll worry about what we’re actually teaching this future generation of ours.
The research has been followed by a project with mum of two Giovanna Fletcher who has launched a video which shows families where food comes from – in particular, where the glass and a half of milk used to make each packet of Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons comes from. It’s such a simple thing but reinforces to children that milk really does come from cows!
It’s amazing to think that over twenty percent of young children don’t know where milk comes from but the survey revealed that parents across the country really do care about knowing where their food comes and it’s now down to us, as parents, to educate our children about where their food comes from too.
LP and Little Man went through a phase of saying that everything came from the supermarket and we would then ask them where it came from before the supermarket and slowly their food knowledge has grown – although discussing processed foods can be tricky as they contain so many different ingredients.
But, the basics like milk, cheese, yogurt – and of course chocolate – are quite simple to teach children. So next time you’re cooking together, walking around the supermarket or just having dinner, make food origins a topic of conversation – and see if your children really know where milk comes from.
Oh wow I can’t believe kids don’t know where milk comes from! I’d bet the same thing can be said for where meat comes from too! We live on a farm so my kids know well where milk & meat come from. They have seen lambs born – there’s no secrets here! Lol It’s great to raise awareness of nature & where our foods come from. x
I can’t believe this, its crazy. Boo is 2 and she knows where milk comes from, and delights in telling us that eggs come from ‘chicken’s bums’. As a family we talk a lot about where food comes from, like honey or meat and Boo knows – I think it’s so important children know what they are eating so then can make better, informed choices when they get older.
OMG this shouldn’t be funny but it is – I can picture a cow in a field tucking into a nice sandwich 😀
Obviously N’s been taught this from a very young age, but he seems to forget terribly. I had him asking the other day whether pork came from cows! And he was very traumatised when he heard that cows had to be killed to get beef from them. I had to reassure him that his cows are female so will be used for breeding and unlikely to go for beef for a long time.
I’m not sure he’d be very clear on cheese, butter or yoghurt. He might not connect the milk to those. I’d hope he would know, but wil be mortified if he doesn’t. I shall test him tomorrow!
I’m actually not surprised at this. I think it’s just an age thing. As they get older, children are more able to cope with concepts like where something came from originally. I have always explained it to my children and my four year old has even seen pig carcasses being carried into the butchers and I told her that they were for making sausages / pork / bacon etc. but I still don’t think she quite gets it.
Nat.x