Has the world gone nuts?

I was struck today be the ridiculousness of modern life and how far removed from our natural environment we've become. Whilst out walking I came across a plethora of Sweet Chestnuts, a bumper year, the winds having dislodged them, the ground was densely covered in fair sized nuts. From deep within my sub conscious an ancestral memory, probably coded into my DNA, prodded me with a flint tipped spear and said 'pick them up then'; the urge to collect was a powerful one, I picked a pocket full, though knowing, really I already had enough at home. Millennia of hunter gathering may have been marginalized by modernity, but can't be easily removed or replaced within us. Or can it? Earlier I'd seen bags of Sweet Chestnuts on sale in the local supermarket at premium prices, and here people were walking by them, not even acknowledging their presence, when they could, with ease, collect masses of Sweet Chestnuts for free. When I was a child, family missions to collect Sweet Chestnuts were a seasonal event, as were Blackberry picking or collecting so many other of natures bounties; pastimes I recall fondly and continued with my own children. Though on the whole, mass participation in and perpetuation of these activities appears to have all but vanished from modern society. Makes me wondered if people remember what's out there or is it that they just can't be bothered.
Has the world gone nuts?