On June 6, 1996, Director Russell Harding, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and Director Gordon Guyer, Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA), issued a letter requesting the development of an industry led, Pollution Prevention Strategy for Michigan Agriculture. The directive centered on a 1995 report released by a producer driven Agricultural Nonpoint Source Task Force. The charge, as stated in the letter was to, "move these (task force report) recommendations toward an implementation phase by utilizing them as a cornerstone for developing a Pollution Prevention Strategy for Michigan agriculture." The letter further stated that, "The strategy will be made available to the legislature and state and local policy makers for use as a guide in developing agricultural-environmental policy."

In a series of meetings, an Agricultural Pollution Prevention Task Force core committee met to discuss the environmental issues confronting producers, agri-business, and agencies into the 21st century. On March 14, 1997, the Task Force presented a draft pollution prevention strategy to Director Dan Wyant, MDA, and Director Harding, MDEQ. The respective agencies convened to review the draft and initiate a dialog with the Task Force core group. The following strategy was finalized in October of 1997, with concurrence from all involved parties and an Implementation Plan was drafted by MDA and MDEQ to facilitate implementation of the Strategy recommendations