Pollution prevention in agriculture is widely recognized as one of the most effective approaches undertaken to reduce the amount of waste generated, stored, transported, treated, or released to the environment. It is, however, frequently difficult to establish a direct cause and effect relationship between the implementation of agricultural pollution prevention activities and measures of improved environmental health. Surrogate environmental information and trends, such as those identified through the analysis of chemical loadings to the environment, may be used as indicators of environmental protection progress made from the implementation of agricultural pollution prevention activities and programs. Additionally, the amount of participation in agricultural pollution prevention activities and programs can be quantified to provide an indirect measure on environmental quality improvements. Where such quantitative analyses can be made, they will be useful in assessing whether resources are being allocated effectively, in identifying other areas that may need attention, and in evaluating the overall success of this implementation plan.

Action Items:

1. Strengthen existing and develop new measuring tools and capabilities to generate, collect, and analyze agricultural pollution prevention information. Lead: MDEQ/MDA.
2. Benchmark existing activities, identify possible agricultural pollution prevention opportunities for technology transfer, and measure progress through current environmental reporting requirements, survey results, literature reviews, conferences, and other sources. Lead: MDEQ/MDA.

Evaluation

Over the next five years, members of the Task Force core committee will reconvene annually to evaluate and report to the directors of MDA and MDEQ on the status of achieving the objectives and to strengthen those existing activities and programs that are effective and direct remaining and additional resources to promising new activities and programs. MDA and MDEQ will be responsible to document their individual charges and report back to the committee.

Evaluation of MDEQ/MDA’s agricultural pollution prevention activities and products provides an indirect measure of the effectiveness of certain agricultural pollution prevention activities in meeting the identified Strategy objectives. Possible examples of information to be evaluated include:

• Number of agricultural pollution prevention requests received.
• Number of case studies and fact sheets produced and reproduced annually.
• Number of conference or workshop attendees and conference content evaluation.
• Number of Agricultural Technical Assistance Program (AGRITAP) waste assessments and Farm*A*Systs performed.
• Number and magnitude of barriers to agricultural pollution prevention identified and successfully addressed.
• Number of stakeholders/industries participating in a defined, goal-directed agricultural pollution prevention program with reportable results.