Excerpts from the Introduction to Part I: This survey report provides key information on how direct marketing has been creating opportunities for small farmers, while constructing an accurate profile of those who engage in the practice. With funding support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), CIRS [California Institute of Rural Studies] set out to answer two main questions in conducting its survey: How does direct marketing impact farm entry? How does direct marketing affect long-term farm viability? Excerpts from the Introduction to Part II: This case study focuses on strawberry cultivation and direct marketing by Southeast Asian immigrant farmers (specifically, Mien immigrants from Laos), in the Sacramento and North San Joaquín Valleys. Though strawberry production had been declining in the area for decades, these farmers spurred a boom that began in the late 1990s. This case study complements and embellishes the information presented in Part I, specifically seeking to disentangle the process by which the Mien became strawberry farmers, the nature of their current production, and their approach to direct marketing.