"veganism" news and stories

For those of you who love to rant against vegans, you're about to get fuel for your fire. The Stir just posted a story about how Simon Fairlie's new book, Meat, a Benign Extravagance, already has high-profile English vegan activist George Monbiot thinking differently about meat. Monbiot's vegan retraction "I was wrong about veganism" is a delicious read for carnivores.

That doesn't mean you can now scarf down a Big Mac guilt free (environmentally speaking) -- it's all about which meat you eat and how it's raised. Head over to The Stir to read about the 5 ways that meat can be earth friendly...

It was a term that was coined several years ago, but I haven't heard it being used recently. "Flexitarian" refers to a person who wants to eat vegetarian, but will occasionally eat meat. In 2003, the term was voted most useful by the American Dialect Society.

A flexitarian is a person who eats about an 80% vegetarian diet, but for whatever reason, whether health or taste or other reason, will "allow" meat. However, most flexitarians are less motivated by animal rights or other socio-econo-political reasons, and moreso by the health aspect.

With the heightened interest in veganism and vegetarianism, I found an article about flexitarianism to be sort of funny. People in the article refer to themselves as "bad vegetarians," so they have become "flexitarians." It's great to see a trend in people's diets changing to more plant-based, but I didn't know that it had to be validated with it's own special term.

Eat as you see fit. Vegan. Vegetarian. Sometimes vegan. Vegetarian when it's possible. Carnivore. You don't have to have a name for it.