I do not know what the situation is outside of Croatia, but there is an occuring pattern in the world. People today buy their food in supermarkets and that truly is convenient. Very few people (especially in Europe, North America and parts of Asia) grow their own food. Few of us would know how to survive in the wilderness which is tragic.

The food that we eat is not the same as before when people grew everything on their own. Many additives are added and the food that we eat is full of sugar, salt and fat. For example, a chocolate bar has very little cocoa in it. It is mostly sugar that an average chocolate bar contains.

I am not saying that before it was better. It is hard to grow everything (plants and animals) on your own. People were malnourished which is horrible.

But, there should be a balance. Mass agriculuture is responsible for so many ecological problems, including the ever shrinking percentage of potable water as well as the lack of biodiversity. I think that we should reform agriculture and that we should teach people how to grow their own food.

I know that my proposal is fantasy, but it is not all about money.

I agree that Big Ag causes problems.

My house sits on less than a quarter acre. The growing season is very short; roughly three to four months. I don't own enough property to do things such as raise cattle or any other kind of livestock. "Free range chickens" for me would mean free coyote food. In order to create a space large enough for a couple of chickens, it would cost thousands of dollars just to clear cut a area for them. That price wouldn't include back filing the area, and whatever else would have to be done to make the area habitable ( coyote / fox proof enclosure) for something to live in the area year round. The wildlife that lives in that area don't mind the trees, brush and dead logs, ect... as they use them for various purposes.

We have non-chain grocery stores in our area that purchase from local farmers. We also have companies that sell beef, chicken, ect... that are farm raised rather than Big Ag. The big chain grocery stores are a different story. More than 80% of their inventory is junk food. There are entire aisle dedicated to cereals, alone. My local grocery store stinks like red tide most of the time because they import seafood from places like China. It is really gross and I spend as little time in there as possible.

I don't know what the solution is. People learning how to cook I think would be a good start. It's cheaper to cook from home while knowing what the ingredients are rather than spending $20.00 for a single sandwich from Door Dash, but that's a whole other discussion.

In the country where I live (England UK) at least, the problem is that for years we've been conditioned as a society (through medical, govenmental and media/ consumer advice) to believe that fat is bad. So the only options for food are low fat, high carb food stuffs. Anything that is a dessert or confectionery has to be artificially sweetened, as sugar is bad too. The result is a society of obese, malnourished, insulin resistant people, whose doctors pump them full of metabolism changing drugs and statins. No-one knows what a healthy meal looks like because for years we've been told a bowl of porridge with banana followed by toast is a good breakfast, and a healthy lunch is a baked potato with baked beans on top.


I do try, but the weather is constantly against us, being a marine climate.

I live in an arid dry climate (Southwestern US) and the growing season can be quite brutal for crops when you're reaching 100+ Fahrenheit temperatures every year. However, i like to support the local farmers by buying products from them directly if they sell reasonable enough. I get my eggs from my neighbors down the street for only 2USD, which is cheaper (and healthier) than the store alternatives. However, not everything can be bought from the local farmers, especially products that cannot grow in our soil. With that we are forced to buy imported products from the supermarkets which often have to pass US regulations which as I have come to found out over the years tend to allow for more food additives and other ingredients that would be illegal for food products to contain elsewhere. But what do you do when you need certain ingredients to make food?
 

Admittedly this is a huge problem in the US as well. I'm sure many countries beside our two have the same issue you've described. It's practically a global phenomenon.

I'm from Bahrain (currently in Sheffield, UK), and even though it's a tiny island in the Persian gulf with an arid desert climate, we used to have a significant portion of land in the north-western part of the main island that is fertile and arable, full of orchards (mostly palm trees). Unfortunately, due to poor urban planning and the urban sprawl that took over most of the open land up north (especially after oil was discovered back in 1932), we've lost most of that land. Agricultural land nowadays is pretty much fragmented.

As for businesses, while we still have smaller shops selling fruits and vegetables, super/hypermarkets are everywhere, and they all tend to import most of their produce from overseas, i.e. an increase in prices. The government's recently started trying to put focus on improving local agriculture and even helped establish a (weekly, I believe) farmer's market. But, honestly, it just feels too little too late.

Fishing has also been impacted by land reclamation projects all around the island and, I suppose, by climate change too.