Richard Rominger, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will tour Cornell on Friday afternoon, present the keynote address at the Northeast Regional Alpha Zeta Conference on campus on Friday evening, then visit Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., on Saturday.

Celebrating its centennial this year, Alpha Zeta is the national honorary fraternity for agriculture. One of 67 chapters nationwide and one of only two house chapters, which also operates as a social fraternity, Cornell's Alpha Zeta members are active in community service, 4-H activities and promoting agriculture throughout the campus. The chapter is the host for Rominger's visit.

Before presenting his keynote address, Rominger will tour the College of Veterinary Medicine, the USDA/ARS Plant, Soil and Nutrition Lab on the Cornell campus, and he will meet with several Cornell officials from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology.

Rominger became deputy secretary of the USDA under President Clinton on May 12, 1993. He is a family farmer who has worked to grow alfalfa, beans, corn, sunflowers, safflower, tomatoes and other crops in California. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of California at Davis in plant science and is an alumnus of Alpha Zeta.

Prior to joining the USDA, Rominger served on the board of directors of the American Farmland Trust from 1986 to 1991 and on the board of directors at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. In 1991, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the California Farm Bureau Federation and in 1992, he was selected as the Agriculturist of the Year at the California State Fair.