Part-time Self Sufficiency

I've just been reading a Brits in France forum talking about the rise in food prices and was amused by the general agreement that obviously nobody eats seasonally anymore and it would be quite impossible to do so.

In the twelve years we've been here I've seen a real shift in the supermarket fruit and vegetable stock from seasonal and mostly French, if not regional produce, to everything available from everywhere all year round. At the same time there has been a reactionary a boom in local vegetable growers, many of them are youngsters who've escaped the city or are returning to their roots, mostly growing organically (which doesn't carry as big a premium as in the UK), selling direct forom the field, through markets or box schemes.
We've eaten seasonally (plus bananas ) since we arrived and our diet is certainly not boring, although you do have to be imaginative with pumpkins , and we only eat meat/fish a couple of times a week. 

Sorry, not sure where I'm going with this post, but I thought it was interesting and tied in with the thread. If we can be self-sufficient or part time self sufficient, then surely the countries in which we live can be too?