Aaron Meshon

Many years ago -- more years than I care to remember -- one of the few pleasures of a misbegotten stint as a high school teacher in London was the opportunity to take groups of inner-city kids on day trips by train and boat to France. On one of these occasions, speeding through the bucolic Kent countryside, a 13-year-old boy tapped me on the shoulder, pointed out the window, and said, "Sir? What's that?" Apart from the empty green field, there was only one thing in sight. "That," I said, "is a cow."

It seems not much has changed. In February the Dairy Farmers of Britain conducted a survey of more than 1,000 children aged 8 to 15 to discover what they knew about the origins of everyday foods. Not surprisingly, those who lived in the countryside fared best. Among urban kids, one in ten couldn't identify the source of yogurt. Eight percent didn't know that beefburgers (as they're called in Britain) come from cows. So what does come from cows? The answer from 2 percent of respondents: eggs.