Composed of the words “flexible” and “vegetarianism”, flexitarianism refers to a flexible dietary approach which aims to reduce the consumption of animal flesh without excluding it entirely.

The adoption of this diet is driven by a variety of motivations: economic, health-related, environmental, or ethical. It can be a way to spend less, to take care of one’s health, to help counteract climate change, or to promote animal welfare.

Although, flexitarism has no official framework regarding food consumption, some studies have suggested some criteria to facilitate its analysis, such as:

• at least three days per week without consuming any animal flesh;
• one weekly portion of red meat (approximately 100 g).

These reference points are intended to provide an operational basis without having any normative value.

This individual dietary approach is part of a global agroecological transition. By reducing the consumption of animal flesh, flexitarianism may encourage a transformation of production systems towards more diversified models, such as plant proteins (legumes, cereals, oilseeds). This shift in demand helps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and to optimise land use by supporting integrated crop–livestock systems. It also helps to reduce the pressure on natural resources such as freshwater.

By reshaping food demand, flexitarianism is a crucial support to agroecological transition in the socio-economic sphere: it fosters sustainable food production and biodiversity conservation. Thus, the limitation meat consumption drives the reconfiguration of agricultural systems, connecting consumer choices with more sustainable and resilient production practices.