Opinion: "Flexitarian" isn't another Diet Fad

I’ve been a strict pescatarian for almost six years now, meaning I have never eaten meat outside of fish since I was thirteen.  Yet, I tend to call myself a vegetarian, both as a courtesy to those who don’t know all the lingo, and because it’s mostly true.  I eat fish very little, usually only on special occasion and when I am at home with my family and the fish is very local (I am from a *nautical* small town in Maryland, and I went away to school when I was thirteen).  More recently, I don’t eat dairy products except for a few slip-ups, and I have followed essentially what is a weekday vegan diet, eating eggs only on the weekends. 

I try not to beat myself up on slip-ups because I believe the future of first world eating will be a flexible diet with some plant-based days and some not.  Meat is very embedded in today’s society; it an integral part of the cuisine of many of the vast variety of cultural identities in the US.  However, as the world population increases, this country needs to transition into more sustainable food choices, to save the planet, to conserve water, to lower greenhouse gas emissions, to burn less fuel for transportation, to reduce the energy lost from moving up a trophic level, and to reduce the atrocities of factory farming (both on the animals and the workers), but this does not necessarily or realistically mean eradicating meat from the American diet.

To many, going completely vegetarian or vegan is too difficult and completely unreasonable, but eating one or two plant-based meals per week seems doable.  Flexitarianism opens the door for Americans to begin to have a more plant-based diet, and it actually makes a difference.  I recently watched part of Cowspiracy, a Netflix documentary about the environmental impact of eating meat.  According to the movie, it takes 660 gallons of water to produce one hamburger.  The movie also states that going vegan can reduce your carbon footprint by up to 50%, so a consistent flexitarian diet could reduce a consumer's carbon footprint by a meaningful fraction.

I do not believe that individuals’ diet choices is a replacement for good food industry regulation, but it’s a good start.  Too often animal rights organizations stress that going vegan is the only real sustainable option, using scare tactics and propaganda.  However as this country becomes more and more open to a plant-based diet, I believe that it will also begin to become more informed and passionate about regulating the meat and dairy industry and soon real change will manifest.