Editorial: Being vegetarian not a flexible job

What is a flexitarian? Although it probably sounds like someone who’s good in bed, it actually… What is a flexitarian? Although it probably sounds like someone who’s good in bed, it actually refers to a person who is a part-time vegetarian.

Wait, what?

Time recently ran a piece on “weekday vegetarians,” or those who are only vegetarian part time. According to the article, flexitarians choose what to eat and when.

We thought those were called omnivores.

Only a very small percentage of Americans are strict vegetarians: about 2.5 percent as estimated by the American Dietetic Association.

So, can the rest of us be considered partial vegetarians? After all, we choose what to eat and when. And if not, when can one legitimately be considered a partial vegetarian?

Do those people who partake in Meatless Monday but eat meat the rest of the week count as flexitarians? Does avoiding the tacos at Market Central make us flexitarians too?

The livestock industry produces 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, Time reports. Encouraging people to eat less meat is therefore a good move for the environment.

We aren’t scoffing at the number of animals that are saved by Meatless Monday or the impact it makes when many people go meatless for just one day. We understand that partial vegetarianism is more user-friendly. People can eat fewer animals and help the environment without making a huge commitment to never eat a Five Guys burger again.

But why do we give something like that a label? Does it really deserve one? It seems to us that people in our society just have a need to divide everything into categories. But the problem is, some things in life are just black and white. Like pregnancy: You’re either pregnant or you’re not. You can’t be partially pregnant. And someone who eats meat, no matter what the frequency, can’t be considered partially vegetarian. It just makes no sense.

Let’s not add another word to the dictionary to describe someone in between a vegetarian and an omnivore. And let’s try to constrain our incessant need to label everything around us.