biopiracy

Definitions

The appropriation of indigenous biomedical knowledge, especially by patenting naturally occurring substances.

derogatory, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Capital now has to look⟳ for new colonies to invade and exploit for its further accumulation. These new colonies are, in my view⟳, the interior spaces of the bodies of women, plants, and animals. Resistance to biopiracy is a resistance to the ultimate colonization of life itself—of the future of evolution as well as the future of non-Western traditions of relating to and knowing nature.”

“[…] Although most of the public demonstrations during that meeting were aimed at globalization in general (and labor and biopiracy issues in particular), they also focused on trade⟳ issues related to genetically modified foods.”

“Alongside the nature targets, countries reached a historic agreement to develop⟳ a financial mechanism for sharing the benefits from drug discoveries, vaccines and food products that come⟳ from digital forms of biodiversity, known as digital sequence information or DSI, after rows about biopiracy in the lead-up to Cop15.”

CEFR level