AURI leads design of national database
on ag-based industrial products

By Dan Lemke

Washington, D.C. -- Almost daily there's news of an ag product breakthrough somewhere in the country -- anything from a cleaning product to a pharmaceutical. Now there's a one-stop web site -- www.ia-usa.org -- that's keeping tabs on value-added developments across the country. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman unveiled the new web site, Industrial Agriculture USA, in November.

Thousands of ag related web sites already exist on the Internet. IA-USA brings much of the information under one umbrella. "We wanted a clearinghouse where someone can find everything they need on industrial agriculture from A to Z," says Bob Armstrong, executive director of USDA's Alternative Agriculture Research and Commercialization Corporation, the web site's sponsor. "There was nothing out there like this."

In partnership with the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, AURI and its' information systems team, Corky Miller and Marie Fournier, designed the site with help from interns Nathan Myrold and Diane Loeslie.

"This is a one-stop shop -- a real shortcut to finding key information," Miller says. "A web site can handle numerous requests at the same time and can be updated from one location."

"There is so much information out there that the greatest value is to be a yellow pages, so all the information makes sense," says Mark McAfee, a consultant who assisted with IA-USA's development.

Designed primarily for investors, researchers and entrepreneurs, IA-USA includes comprehensive information on nonfood, nonfeed ag products and provides links to related companies, organizations and research institutes as well as business and financial assistance providers. Web users can search the site by state, commodity or type of product and can identify a product's stage of development.

Companies linked to the site can expect added reach for their products. "We're finding more and more knowledgeable and environmentally conscious people are searching the web," says Mike Hughes of Pet Care Systems, Inc., whose Detroit Lakes, Minn. company produces cat litter made from wheat and milo. "This gives us added status in the market."

"We've teamed with national ag leaders who want to accelerate the development and commercialization of new ag-based products," says David Bartholomay, AURI deputy director for planning and development.

"We hope to continually expand the site," Armstrong adds. "While it's not the end all, be all, it is something to benefit all of agriculture. It's all I hoped it would be and then some."