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In the early 20th century, in the rural economy of Italy, the idea of wasting food was unheard of, and about 50% of income was spent providing food. Today food only involves 10% of average income, but we have forgot how to deal with what we eat. Consumerism, which also affects our behavior towards food, is a cultural attitude based on which people feel more or less realized solely on the basis of their purchasing possibilities. If we separate food from necessity, health, needs of everyone; we separate the production from the times of the seasons, from nature and from the possibilities that the land has to regenerate its resources; if we separate the act of eating from that of knowing what we eat; if all the phases of the production chain lose the connection between them, then the waste is not only inevitable, but even pursued because it is functional to the criterion of maximum profit. A lesser evil to the detriment of our planet, which leads us to a further waste: a waste of health. We therefore need a change of pace that concerns regulations, energy choices, basic culture, ecology education; we also need profound changes in the value scales, in individual and collective behavior. We must return to considering family, traditional and small-scale agriculture, with its integrated systems and its productive capacities commensurate with the needs of communities and natural resources, as a driving force on which to base the change towards a relationship with food that meets our needs without compromising those of other living beings, current and future. KEY WORDS food; waste; consumerism; environment; health.