Buried under insurmountable debt, a California dairy farmer was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Bakersfield-area man was tied to a number of companies and pending projects, which could have ended up employing hundreds of locals. However, with his bankruptcy, there is a chance that these projects could be put on hold -- or even canceled all together.

According to his bankruptcy filing, the dairy farmer has $13.10 million in liabilities, and just $1.44 million in assets.

The farmer was a member of the American Dairy Parks, and had been named the president of the proposed Blue Ribbon Cheese Co. facility. The intention of this facility was to one day produce 680,000 pounds of cheese on a daily basis. This facility was set to employee hundreds of employees. However, as of now, the Blue Ribbon Cheese facility has not been built.

In addition to the proposed mass-producing cheese facility, the man was also behind a technology that extracts methane gas from cow manure to convert it into electricity. The plan was for digesters that collected these gases to be placed on numerous dairy farms. His company, BioEnergy Solutions, would then sell the gas to the electric company, and the farmer who allowed for the digester to be on his or her property would then receive a cut of the profits.

As of now it's unknown if this company is still in operation.

Under this Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the man's assets will most likely be sold off in order to pay back those creditors who are owed money. Among those creditors are those who were tied to his business ventures. For example, the bankruptcy filing lists investors of BioEnergy Partners being owed $330,000.

Other creditors also include a Fresno-based engineering company, and a video production company.

Source: The Business Journal, "Dairy technology entrepreneur declares bankruptcy," Chuck Harvey, Jan. 19, 2012