  We propose an efficient mechanism for the evaporative cooling of trapped
fermions directly into quantum degeneracy. Our idea is based on an electric
field induced elastic interaction between trapped atoms in spin symmetric
states. We discuss some novel general features of fermionic evaporative cooling
and present numerical studies demonstrating the feasibility for the cooling of
alkali metal fermionic species $^6$Li, $^{40}$K, and $^{82,84,86}$Rb. We also
discuss the sympathetic cooling of fermionic hyperfine spin mixtures, including
the effects of anisotropic interactions.
