"I am excited about the promise of the Sun Grant Initiative for our producers in South Dakota and across the country," Daschle said. "As many producers struggle to make ends meet, this program would provide new economic promise through the promotion non-food uses for farm commodities and value-added products. There is tremendous potential in this area, and I hope we can move forward on this as quickly as possible."

The initiative, which would be driven by a national consortium of land grant universities (led by SDSU), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy, would identify new ways to convert bio-based resources into energy and other products. It would also identify strategies for making the appropriate crop varieties and value-added processes accessible to producers and communities.

The initiative would lead to significant advances not only in technology development, but also in ensuring those new technologies make it to the market, which would provide income alternatives to farmers and ranchers, and provide opportunities for diversification to rural communities.

Daschle said that the best-known value-added products were renewable fuels such as ethanol, but he noted that many other possible products exist, including pharmaceuticals, building materials, bio-plastics, textiles, lubricants, solvents, adhesives, and much more.

"The "Sun Grant Initiative" would provide a framework for major new investments in necessary research, and for ensuring producers and communities receive the tremendous benefits from the results of that research," Daschle said.

Daschle said he would like this proposal to be a key element of a new "Energy and Bio-Products" title of the next Farm Bill.