Last quarter Oxford Dictionary made hundreds of additions as part of their annual update. One of the words added was flexitarian.
The definition of flexitarian says: a person who sometimes eats meat or fish although they do not usually do so
It is a great word as it describes those who predominately eat vegetarian food, but do not sometimes dig into meat or fish.
There can be many reasons why a person does not want to be a devoted vegetarian, though prefer to predominately eat vegetarian food. For one it sometimes causes a fuzz to demand vegetarian food when invited for dinner party where most others eat meat. Furthermore, the person might once in a while indulge in some meat without feeling guilty.
So with the word flexitarian now on the table it might encourage more people to reduce their meat consumption without having to give it all up in order to fit into the vegetarian category.
Reduced carbon emissions
Ultimately, what is important is that the general meat consumption worldwide goes down as it has a huge negative impact on the environment. Meat production is said to count 18% of total global greenhouse gas emissions if one count all the aspect related to it such a deforestation for land clearance, feeding the animals, shipping of meat, energy consumption for freezing the meat and of course the methane from cows farting.
If one then compared that to the aviation industry that counts for about 3% of global emissions it makes more sense for people to become vegetarian rather than stop flying. And a flexitarian will also have a positive impact.
Social media additions
Other interesting words added to the Oxford Dictionary include social media words like tweeps, video chat, lifecasting, douche, ethical hacker, hackathon, lolz, ridic and inbox.