With chicken of the woods, fairy rings, crow garlic and jelly ears all on the menu, foraged foods are nothing short of a restaurant marketeer's dream.

Locally sourced and seasonal, tasty morsels from the forest floor are very much in vogue with modern diners and now find their way into everything, from cocktails to cakes.

But is this seemingly innocent surge in 'found' ingredients hiding a guilty secret; one that cashes in on trend-hungry urbanites while depleting wild food stocks?

Quite possibly.

Let's begin by going back in time to a land before Tesco, where foraging wasn't so much a MasterChef-esque art form but basic human instinct.  

Here our ancestors lived hand to mouth with small holdings complemented by nature's own lush larder packed with edible flowers, wild honey and everything inbetween.

'Organic', 'traceable' and 'artisan' would - of course - never have been used to describe this wholesome yet primitive menu. 

These terms were yet to be invented; posthumously drawn up to describe a way of life that technology and agribusiness would change forever.  

Fast forward a few thousand years and find yourself working a 9-5 in a climate controlled, multi-storey office complex where 'hunter gathering' behaviour now equates to ramming twenty pence pieces into a vending machine.

It's unsurprising then that an increased number of us want to reconnect with our roots and consume the kind of diet we were designed to.

So at risk of sounding the cynic, foraging absolutely has its place.

Not just in educating diners about the wealth of edibles on their doorstep but because eating locally and seasonally really is one of the few antidotes to modern excess; both for ourselves and the environment.

The problem is mankind's ability to repackage forgotten human behaviour into a cutting edge foodie trend with a price tag to match.

In the same way studies have shown the human brain to release endorphins at the 'peep peep' of the supermarket till, foraged food could easily have the same effect; especially when today's social hierarchy is determined not by how adept you are at catching prey, but by how much of it you can afford to consume.

A worrying message from woodland conservation trusts suggests this is already the case, as the popularity of foraged foods - particularly in London - now sees 'gangs' of foragers illegally and mercilessly plundering forests beyond repair to sell to high-end restaurants.

The trick to foraging has always been 'pick what you need'.

In 2014 however, it's unlikely nature will ever again be able to satisfy our insatiable, trend-driven appetites which - unlike our ancestors - weren't forged by the abundance that modern farming and supermarkets brought with them.