Highlighting the near-impossible economics of small farms, Soul Food Farm announced that they’ve decided to close the farm and stop raising their pastured chicken and eggs; they can’t make a living given soaring prices for chicken feed and don’t want to continue raising their prices: (full story, SF Chronicle)

Good Eggs, an SF food/tech start-up, just launched an e-commerce platform for consumers to find and buy food directly from nearby farmers and food makers; some are calling it an Etsy for local foodies: (full story, Wired)

EcoScraps, a Utah company, takes leftover food from 96 retail stores, turns it into compost, and sells it; they receive 100 tons of food waste every day and sell their compost at over 400 retailers: (full story, Venture Beat)

The current no-growth environment for many grocery chains makes managing costs and competing for market share crucial; this explains why labor relations in this business can be so testy and why so many small grocery chains aren’t around anymore: (full story, Wall Street Journal)

Credibles, a new web project of Slow Money, looks like Kickstarter and other crowd sourcing sites but is about an equal exchange: the amount of money that you put forth for a restaurant or food business is the amount you’re credited to make a purchase: (full story, Tasting Table)