So, I've been checking out some forums associated with the Foodie Blogroll and there's a lot of chatter out there about "flexitarianism". M and I first encountered this term in an Eating Well from last year. I can't find the article on their website, but it was just a brief blurb. They defined flexitarians as people who mostly ate vegetarian food, but occasionally ate meat. M and I immediately defined ourselves as flexitarians! Since we try to only eat organic, humanely raised meat, our bank account doesn't allow for a lot of meat consumption. Eating low on the food chain also makes sense from an environmental perspective - growing vegetables takes far less energy than growing a similar amount of meat. Even with both the financial and environmental factors that push us toward a plant-based diet, we're just unlikely to go completely vegetarian. We like meat and completely going without it eliminates a huge range in our cooking reptoire. Even more, every time we buy meat from a small farm with humane care and butchering, we send a very real message that we support this type of farming. Each time that message goes out, more farms consider using these practices. I'm a huge fan of voting my opinions with my dollars. So all this puts us pretty firmly in the flexitarian camp. We probably eat meat no ore than once or twice a week and often in very small amounts when we do eat it.

That said, as I read more recent definitions of the term flexitarian (such as this set from the Urban Dictionary), I get the impression that term mostly refers to people who eat vegetarian at home, but will eat meat at restaurants or with friends. If it was up to me (which it's obviously not), I think I'd use the term "social omnivore" to cover that class of diet, reserving "flexitarian" for people who more completely embrace the limited meat diet. Then again, maybe there's an even better term for me out there...

Note: I liked this brief story on flexitarians from MSNBC, because I'm totally in this woman's camp - I LOVE sausage.