Many retailers commented on the almost sacred, religious aspect of their dedication to their vision.

R8 explains: “It’s a two way, it’s like…the reason I like buying organically is um….it’s just to me, it does a lot with the energy and the beauty of the process of…’cause I come from farmers…it’s just kind of that whole vintage….I don’t know how to explain it…it’s more like the whole custom and whole tradition of belief I have…I didn’t grow up with cough syrup; my mom would have a wax piece of paper, sugar ...[she would put snails from the backyard on the sugar]... and in the morning it would caramelize and that would be my cough syrup…to me that’s organic…I didn’t grow up with pills or TV dinners…the organic and simplicity of everything…I DJ and I still use vinyl…for me everything is organic in my life…it’s just the rawness of working with the Earth….everything I intake I feel all the chemicals, all the nastiness that’s out there…it’s just my belief ....my belief in the mom and pop industry….that’s why I check in if they are new farms.  I know they shut down organic farms once a day or once a week…for me we grew our own food…we had our animals in the front yard in downtown San Jose, for me it’s important because it brings me back to family. It’s the wellness, sustainability.”

The dedication of others in the local food community helped to fuel their enthusiasm, respect, and continued support for the retailers’ missions. R5 said:“I love that there is so much dedication and that these farmers are working 52 weeks a year to nurture their land to produce crops and that they have visions that they learn about the challenges raising produce without chemicals or pesticides. I love seeing how people branch out and change. It is just totally inspirational to see people can devote their whole lives to this.”

This type of dedication, allowed distributors like R13 (who described his environment, saying, “It’s cold, it's hard, it's dangerous, it's exhausting”) to feel satisfied and continue. He said, “It's really gratifying because we're working with really beautiful product...with incredibly talented chefs….it's nice to work with people that work so hard.”

Although we were told of many avenues to maintain relationships, one recurring one was attendance to the farmers market.  R3 and R4 both noted “We're pretty religious about going. It is critical for [our restaurant]. It is the thing that keeps us offering encouragement for us to continue these relationships with growers... keep the bonds and develop new bonds.”