Really...are the youth of today that dumb!!

[rosyposy51]

I was watching a current affairs program last evening, and the subject was educating people on good food choices etc ( A new book on the market...blah blah).......but what absolutely gobsmacked me........the kids being interviewed thought that pasta came from an animal....and yoghurt from a plant. What is wrong with the parents/education system/society in our tiny country????

[Warren D]

the kids being interviewed thought that pasta came from an animal....and yoghurt from a plant. :lol: ..........

[Nancy LC]

I was watching a current affairs program last evening, and the subject was educating people on good food choices etc ( A new book on the market...blah blah).......but what absolutely gobsmacked me........the kids being interviewed thought that pasta came from an animal....and yoghurt from a plant. What is wrong with the parents/education system/society in our tiny country????
It isn't just your country. I've met loads of adults that don't know pasta is made from flour or that flour comes from wheat.

[DAGrant]

Yeah, lots of people are ignorant of where food comes from or what is in it. I had my own experience not too long ago which spawned this thread.

I think my head just exploded at Ruby Tuesdays (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=438412)

Makes you wonder..

[rosyposy51]

I think your story wins!!
My granddaughters live on a farm and have just had a couple of pigs slaughtered and made into bacon. Initially there were sad for the pigs, but their love of bacon soon overcame that. At least they know where bacon comes from!!

[rosejamm]

That's funny but also a bit sad. Young people these days seem to be ignorant when it comes to many things, not just food, especially kids that grow up in a safe environment and have parents to worry about what food they eat.
Still, I'm sure the program was edited in such a way that they picked the most outrageous answers just to point out that people need to be more educated when it comes to food. Perhaps this is a wake up call.

[Amanda1978]

As a teenager my cousin moved from the country into the city. She complained all the time about other teens not knowing where their food came from. She said that many of the Muslim's would eat any kind of meat as long as it wasn't called "pork" and would laugh at her when she'd try to explain that bacon and ham came from pigs too. One even told her that eating pig meat was ok, it was just pork they couldn't have. Now, to be fair, the school she ended up being forced into due to school boundaries is probably the worst school in the city for learning (students with learning problems are sent there from other districts so the school can concentrate on special programs) but you would still think people with religious reasons not to eat certain foods would know what foods they need to avoid no matter what the name of it was. Luckily her sister was a little braniac and was able to transfer into a gifted program at another school.

[madeyna]

I really think its the parents that should be teaching thier kids about food. There is really no reason that they cann,t be teaching the kids about food at the same time they are preparing it for a meal. Its a great learning ob.

[ice1968de]

The answer is (unfortunately) YES, but heads up it is not only in your country...(unfortunately again) the ignorance spreads worldwide....-as you I am always deeply shocked about the general education/knowledge of our youth. You can't measure the today's kids/school/education with our generation's.

[ice1968de]

The problem is not the "new" generation, it is the parents already who have no common education, so how shall they teach kids if they are self ignorant????????????

[Amanda1978]

The problem is not the "new" generation, it is the parents already who have no common education, so how shall they teach kids if they are self ignorant????????????

Yup, it's the parents fault for not teaching their kids the basics. Schools play important roles in education but they aren't for raising children. That needs to be done at home.

[Sue333]

I had a fascinating conversation with my 12 year old yesterday. We were driving past the agriculture/horticulture research plots that belong to the local university (these plots are right in the middle of the city, which I think is FANTASTIC...people can see food being grown!) and I told him how grateful I was that I had worked in those fields as a student, and I understood how food was grown, where food came from, and was able to make informed choices about my food (I used to make frankenfoods...I'm sorry...that was me...just canola though, don't blame me for the weird wheat, that one is not my fault!). That conversation made me realize that I just might be in the minority with respect to knowing all about food. Wow.

[ICDogg]

It's just weird to me. I didn't grow up on a farm or anything like that. We didn't have vegetables, other than a few tomato plants, growing in the back yard. I grew up in the city and we shopped in the supermarket. I never took a single course in nutrition, other than the "four basic food groups" we supposedly should eat, back in grade school. We didn't have resources like the Internet to easily look anything up in a moment's notice.

How is it that so many kids are so ill-informed about such basic information?

I suspect that many of them have grown up in families where no one actually cooks food other than re-heating stuff in the microwave.

[DAGrant]

It's just weird to me. I didn't grow up on a farm or anything like that. We didn't have vegetables, other than a few tomato plants, growing in the back yard. I grew up in the city and we shopped in the supermarket. I never took a single course in nutrition, other than the "four basic food groups" we supposedly should eat, back in grade school. We didn't have resources like the Internet to easily look anything up in a moment's notice.

How is it that so many kids are so ill-informed about such basic information?

I suspect that many of them have grown up in families where no one actually cooks food other than re-heating stuff in the microwave.

I think this is a huge part of the problem. Most kids these days never see the raw ingredients of food. It all come prepackaged, heat and serve, so they don't know. I often see people at the grocery, carts brimming over with every kind of frozen dinner, boxes of cereal, cans of pop and bags of chips, and the closest thing they get to fresh produce is fruit roll ups.

No wonder the kids don't know when nothing is ever truly made in front of their eyes.

[aj_cohn]

All this "know your food" talks makes me want find my spear and kill myself a boar!

[ICDogg]

All this "know your food" talks makes me want find my spear and kill myself a boar!
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17iw4tjcvzsaljpg/original.jpg

[Equinox]

I'm reminded of my dorm-mates from a few years back. I would make a salad and they'd ask me if I was a chef. Some of them were middle eastern guys, and they would cook a couple of great-smelling chicken curries from scratch, but when I asked, those were literally the only things they knew how to cook... Otherwise they could just about pop a frozen halal pizza in the oven or slice bread.

I'm lucky though, Mum grew up on a farm and Dad in a fishing village. My family has always visited that farm at least once a year. That's where Mum learned to cook, and she taught my brother and I. I'm competent enough, my brother, though, is into molecular gastronomy. At least as an interest/hobby.

Dad has always hunted, most years the freezer is full of game, moose from his own hunts and venison from my aunt's neighbours by the family farm. My aunt has a small farm-based charcuterie business, and makes fermented, smoked mutton sausages, dried smoked salted sheep ribs (pinnekjøtt), cured sheep "ham" hocks, stuff like that. She hangs the venison to perfection, too!She also fishes and freezes her catches for us. Farm's far away, but since we visit a few times a year...

With family like these, I couldn't help absorb some knowledge!

[Nancy LC]

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17iw4tjcvzsaljpg/original.jpg
That has to be fake... pigs don't get that big, not even wild ones. That looks like mega-fauna.

[yarralea]

That has to be fake... pigs don't get that big, not even wild ones. That looks like mega-fauna.

I remember seeing monster sized pigs when I was teaching. We took our grade 5 (11 year olds) to a pig farm. Pigs do get that huge. Best thing about that camp was the pigs "made bacon" - you know when one pig tries to jump over the other but c ant quite make it. And the other teacher capturing it all on the video camera.....

Anyhow, back to topic, children only learn what we show them. Parents and over exposure to screens I feel are responsible. However I can only look after the children I have, we teaching cooking, gardening as part of our program for disadvantaged teens. But they are so into their phones! I swear it is so much more challenging after they have been hooked into screens and being entertained for a number of years, they are not excited by new information.
They have pretty ordinary parents, and eat complete Carbage all the time, most will have adult onset diabetes due to weak and absent parents. Our students are pretty much worst case scenario, but over the last 20 years we have seen more kids present as worst case scenario. Junk parents, junk food, junk brains from screens. (of course there are ore reasons)

[Nancy LC]

Maybe the boy is only 2' tall.

Naw, here's the world's largest pig.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/big_norm_the_worlds_largest_bi.html
http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2008/09/large_061908Norm1MG.JPG

[55Kevy]

Makin' bacon - reminds me of my over-hormoned high school days...:)

[IvannaBFit]

I'm reminded of my dorm-mates from a few years back. I would make a salad and they'd ask me if I was a chef. Some of them were middle eastern guys, and they would cook a couple of great-smelling chicken curries from scratch, but when I asked, those were literally the only things they knew how to cook... Otherwise they could just about pop a frozen halal pizza in the oven or slice bread.

I'm lucky though, Mum grew up on a farm and Dad in a fishing village. My family has always visited that farm at least once a year. That's where Mum learned to cook, and she taught my brother and I. I'm competent enough, my brother, though, is into molecular gastronomy. At least as an interest/hobby.

Dad has always hunted, most years the freezer is full of game, moose from his own hunts and venison from my aunt's neighbours by the family farm. My aunt has a small farm-based charcuterie business, and makes fermented, smoked mutton sausages, dried smoked salted sheep ribs (pinnekjøtt), cured sheep "ham" hocks, stuff like that. She hangs the venison to perfection, too!She also fishes and freezes her catches for us. Farm's far away, but since we visit a few times a year...

With family like these, I couldn't help absorb some knowledge!


Omg. Please please please adopt me.