Margaret Mellon is Senior Scientist and Director of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She is one of the nation's most respected experts on biotechnology and food safety. Mellon holds a doctorate in molecular biology and a law degree from the University of Virginia. She was formerly a research fellow in molecular virology at Purdue University and Program Director for the Environmental Law Institute.

Mellon has published widely on the potential environmental impacts of biotechnology applications. She is co-author of Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops and Hogging It!: Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock and co-editor of Now or Never: Serious New Plans to Save a Natural Pest Control. She serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture and teaches a course in biotechnology and the law at the Vermont Law School. In 1993 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University's School of Science.