Food does not come easily; it must not be wasted carelessly.
Tips
memory
来之不易 literally means not easy to have come - emphasizing that the difficulty was in the obtaining. Compare with 得来不易, another variant. Both convey the same sense of something being hard-won.
history
Recorded in the Qing-era household maxims 《治家格言》, which urges that every grain of food and thread of cloth be remembered as 来处不易 - not easily come by.
