LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 47 Communities stretch from my local area all the way to our shared global community. A community is a group of people that unite themselves around a similarity or similarities that they agree they have with each other. However, since we all have similar- ities, we all are part of one community, the global community. People are different all around the world, but some things we all share. One thing all communities have in common is social pressure. 1 People need positive social pres- sure to help them follow their conscience and still conform. Giving in to negative social pressure can lead to shame and a lack of community motivation to have healthier habits that can help them and people around them. According to Brené Brown 2 , empathy is the cure for shame. My dream for my community is for more empathy to help people get over shame, not only an individual level, but also among groups and corporations. People need to follow social pressure to form a stable community, but problems arise when social pressure pushes people to do things that their conscience tells them is wrong. For example, in our country social pressure tells us to eat a lot of meat even though studies have found that eating a lot of meat is bad for you. The USDA and other health organizations say that eating vegetables and legumes is healthier for us and for the environment than a meat-based diet. 3 There are even studies that say large-scale meat production contributes to climate change. 4 Fast food restaurant advertising puts even more social pressure on people to eat a lot of meat. If people in my community believe that eating a lot of meat is less healthy for them and the environment but they do it anyway because of social pressure, they will feel ashamed. That shame can make people less motivated to solve problems in the community. If they followed their conscience and used empathy to relate to others eating too much meat, they could help themselves and their community to eat less meat and eat more vegeta- bles and legumes. Another example of how positive social pressure can help my community involves the pressure to drive fossil fuel-powered cars. Oil companies and car companies make it easy because there are many types of fossil fuel-powered cars available to buy and many gas stations around to fill up the tank. Lots of advertising puts extra pressure on people to buy fossil fuel-powered cars and trucks. People in my community who know that there needs to be less drilling for oil and less air pollution from cars to make communities more healthy still drive fossil fuel-powered cars. Just like with meat, if they believe driving a fossil fuel-powered car is wrong, they will feel shame for doing it. But if they empa- thize with each other, they could collectively take action and make alternative forms of transporta- tion more available in our community. In both these examples, empathy would help people in my com- munity do what they think is right. Some positive social pressure is already happen- ing in my community with meat production and supporting alternatives to fossil fuel-powered cars. Around Malone and northern Vermont there are large-scale factory farms that produce meat with inhumane and environmentally-polluting condi- tions. 5 But around Essex and Westport, NY, there is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Farms like Essex Farm, Echo Farm, Harris Family Farm, and Reber Rock Farm produce small-scale, environmen- tally conscious meat for our community. Some even use horse-powered plows. These farmers produce meat according to their conscience, and invite their Community Through Unity by Evan Beech

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