Britain: Significant Percentage of Teenagers Think Oats Grow on Trees, Bacon Comes from Sheep
February 2nd, 2010Via: Telegraph:
Teenage schoolchildren think oats grow on trees and bacon comes from sheep, a survey showed today.
Many children and young adults also believe eggs were a key ingredient in bread, the researchers said.
The survey showed 26% of children thought bacon came from sheep, 29% thought oats grow on trees, while 17% of both children and adults under the age of 30 believed eggs were a core ingredient in bread.
Research Credit: V
This isn’t stupidity on children’s part. A lot of it has to do with the fact that these ideas are not present in their daily life.
The BBC did an April Fools joke years ago regarding the spaghetti trees. People fell for it, since all they knew is that they buy a box in the store and boil it.
How many people have seen oats growing in a field, and/or known what it was?
Where does bacon come from? A plastic shrink wrap container in the store. They could have expanded this to other cuts of meat, and many people would be oblivious to what the meat is.
I was in an ethnic restaurant several years ago. The people I was eating with were of that ethnicity. I couldn’t identify the meat when I tasted it, but it was good. I asked what it was. All they could tell me was “meat”. The question went around the table a few times, and finally to the waiter who was just as oblivious.
… and …
eggs *can* be a key ingredient in bread. It depends on what kind of bread you are baking. Again, most younger people have never baked their own bread, nor do they even have the pans to do it in.
I have, both to have bread, and (with some alteration) pizza crust. I take an interest in what I like to eat though, and try to cook it at least a few times myself.
I did find that tortellini is rather time consuming to make, but was well worth the effort. It isn’t as time consuming as it is to make marinara sauce from scratch though. I start the sauce, and then make the tortellini. By the time it’s ready to cook, the sauce is still cooking. 🙂 When it’s done, it’s amazing, and you won’t want to eat it made any other way, including at restaurants.
All this does show what will happen in a major economic and/or social collapse. Maybe they can’t make a good loaf of bread, but how many people would still know where to start without asking their mother or grandmother?