A new study says people in the US throw away 40% of their food. It is a figure that includes the waste of not only consumers but also manufacturers and distributors. How they arrived at the figure is tricky and opens questions. But it does not matter, the fact is that regardless of the percentage, which is said to be 25% higher than studies done in recent years, we waste a lot of food. It’s become trendy to link that waste to the environment and how we are harming ourselves when we do. There’s also those who juxtapose this finding to the recent one that food insecurity in America is far higher than many thought. Yet, behind these worthwhile issues there are the values this waste speaks to and what it says about us. It may sound moralistic, and if it does so be it, but it does seem that so much waste speaks of disrespect for our surroundings and for those with less, of our capriciousness about food, maybe even our gluttony, our lack of discipline, with food as well as with money, and last, if not least, it speaks of out of kilter priorities.