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Foraging is not just done to fend off starvation: it is a fun activity for the family that can net you some absolutely delicious foods, and is massively popular in a lot of developed countries - eg: the Nordic countries.

Nothing beats getting a metric shit tonne of chanterelles or similar for free after a nice days exercise in the outdoors.

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People who want to do it for fun still do, but most people gave it up as soon as they could.

I don't think that's really true. Nordic countries are full of people who forage and it's not like they need to do it to get by.

As an equally sad counterpoint, if we had 7 billion people out there foraging the countryside would be stripped bare, wild animals driven further from human inhabited areas, and untold habitats would be degraded from all the wandering and poking around.

Don't get me wrong it's a great hobby, but this isn't something that would heal all social ills if we somehow got everybody or near everybody out doing it.

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