That's very unfortunate for them, but please don't fault it as "City People." Some of us can't help where we live and some of us even know better than your aunt.
As to the fruit trees, maybe they wer only male or only female, or if they needed cross polination and they only had 1 tree of that kind and no one in the area had another then they wouldn't get any fruit.
When I lived in the city, other peoples pesticides weren't a problem, no one else around me had any gardens!
