The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,Food and Rural Afairs (OMAFRA) is quick with regulations, but slow on solutions. It has created the Nutrient Management Act but can’t provide solutions to some firms that want to comply.

The Ontario government is threatening to close down Forfar dairy in Leeds County December 31, 2008, if the plant doesn’t find an alternative for spreading its whey.

For decades, the plant has spread its whey on three licensed fields nearby and there has been no pollution and run-off. But now the province is demanding that Forfar comply with a provincial regulation in the Nutrient Management Act that forbids spreading four months in the winter. That would effectively shut down the cheese factory.

OMAFRA engineer Finbar Desir, who is in charge of finding a solution, says the ministry is considering creating vegetative strips of land around the whey wash to absorb it. The project is selecting a cheese factory in Ontario to test the viability. But Forfar owner, Murray Campbell, can’t figure how a vegetative strip on an incline, as has been proposed, can be effective.

"I can’t say much about the project," Desir says, because the project is in the development stage, and he has just taken over the project.

When asked if they would close Forfar, Desir said: "That is under discussion but we would like to assist as much as possible."

Another plan is to have one of the proposed ethanol plants in eastern or central Ontario use the water and whey in their processes. However, the plants are not running yet and nothing there is firm.

Bringing down the hammer on Forfar would be catastrophic and could eventually lead to the company’s demise, said Campbell. He says that without a place to spread whey they wouldn’t be able to produce curds in the winter and they wouldn’t maintain their cheese staff over the winter months. Eventually, they would lose them.

Six of the seven small, independent cheese factories east of Oshawa are threatened by the Nutrient Management Act. They employ about 400 people.

Forfar dairy, one of the smallest, has revenues of $1.3 million and employs 20 people. Owned by Kenneth and Murray Campbell, it began as a farmer co-operative 144 years ago.