Reducitarian

I like meat, of all varieties.

I understand some people don't like meat, or they choose not to eat meat for a variety of reasons — religion, the environment, cruelty to animals, health, etc.

And there's a spectrum of "-ians" based what kind of meat you allow yourself — pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan. All are valid (though I would question whether making moral or value judgements on another person based on whether they follow your particular dietary choices might not be helpful for your cause).

My family calls ourselves "Reducitarian" (though others might call it "Flexitarian"), based on the simple premise that if most people merely reduced their meat consumption — say, 3/5 of their current intake — then it has a measurable impact on nearly all of those reasons one might choose not to eat meat.

We follow a few rules:

Dining out or at other people's houses doesn't count. Eat whatever meat you want. We dine out less than once a week.

We prefer almond milk over animal dairy, but still buy ice cream, cheese, and other dairy.

We buy the more expensive eggs labeled as "Pasture Raised".

We subscribe to a meat delivery service that sends us 12lbs of meat every 3 months, which helps regulate our meat consumption.

About once a month we purchase 1-2lb of additional meat at the grocery store. This means we cook and eat about 56lbs of meat a year.

The "dining out" rule muddles this a good bit — we're definitely eating more than 56lbs of meat as a family per year. But also, we're certainly eating less meat than the average American household, which is around 274lbs per person .

And it's worked out great! We've got lots of good vegetarian recipes, we go through a lot of tofu and beans, and when I do cook with meat I'm able to make it really shine.

Again, I'm not making a value judgement if you don't eat the way I do. Do I think you should try it? Sure, you might be surprised at how well you like it.

But this is part of a broader theme of being intentional about consumption. Modern society and capitalism makes it all to easy to CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME without providing space for asking "Why?"

I'll admit, when my wife suggested we reduce our meat intake, I was skeptical. I mourned a bit. Change is hard.

In retrospect, while my feelings at the time were valid, if I had known then what I know now I would have been much more receptive.