How Dumb Are We?

How dumb are we anyway? Media constantly gets a bad rap for deceiving the public especially when it comes to heath and food issues. While I am the first one to point out sensationalized stories, I also believe that the public needs to be taken to task for their gullibility. Having raised three mini men, two now at the university level and one entering his senior year of high school, I am appalled at the lack of applicable knowledge they received from school in science, history and current affairs. Rutgers University surveyed 1200 Americans about genetically modified food. 43 percent thought a tomato did not have genes while a genetically modified tomato did. A third actually believed that their own genes would change if they ate genetically modified food. In 1997 Nathan Zohner then a Jr. high student proved the "dumbing down " theory of American youth, when 86 percent of the students he surveyed thought dihydrogen monoxide should be banned after learning that exposure to it's solid form caused tissue damage, and contact with it as a gas caused burns. Only one student identified it correctly as water? I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought.