Martina McGloughlin, director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, will be a featured speaker at two events today and Wednesday at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. "The world's human population continues to grow, while arable land is a finite quantity," McGloughlin says. "Unless we will accept starvation or placing parks and the Amazon Basin under the plow, there really is no alternative to applying biotechnology to agriculture. Biotechnology should be looked upon not only as a solution to problems but as a mechanism to improve the quality of life and the quality of the environment." The Biotechnology Program at UC Davis promotes and coordinates an unusually rich variety of biotechnology-related activities in research, graduate education and community outreach. McGlouglin, an expert on biotechnology health and safety issues, is originally from Galway, Ireland, and holds three master's degrees: molecular genetics, biotechnology and business. The two events are: -- News conference: "The public need for science, not fiction, on biotechnology." Tuesday, Nov. 30, 4 p.m., Four Seasons Hotel, 411 University St., Seattle. U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., will host this news conference with distinguished academic scientists to discuss the benefits of biotechnology for human health and the environment. A news release from Bond's office said he will "challenge anti-technology protesters to forsake street theater and join scientists working constructively to find solutions to the challenges of the next century." Bond serves as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds research activities at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Joining Martina McGloughlin on the news-conference panel will be: Nina Fedoroff, director, Life Sciences Consortium and the Biotechnology Institute, Pennsylvania State University; Brian Larkins, professor, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona; and Douglas Randall, professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri. -- WTO panel: "WTO agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade: Dealing with new food production technologies." Wednesday, Dec. 1, 4:15 p.m., Session D, Grand Ballroom, Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers, 1400 Sixth Ave., Seattle. This panel will address a session of the Agricultural Trade Conference, which is charged with identifying issues for the WTO negotiations. The session moderator will be policy analyst Paul Drazek, a former special trade advisor to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. Joining McGloughlin on this panel will be: U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Lynn Jensen, president of the National Corn Growers Association; Mike Yost, chairman of the American Soybean Association and American Oilseed Coalition; Kevin Brosch, special trade advisor to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Ann Veneman, former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture and former California secretary of agriculture.