Trading the Genome: Investigating the Commodification of Bio-Information

About this book

Many suppliers of the genetic and biochemical resources from which this information is drawn come from economically vulnerable developing countries. The Biodiversity Convention obliges signatory states to ensure that these suppliers of genetic and biochemical resources receive "a just and equitable" share of the profits that accrue from the commercialization of these resources-but it is not clear that they do. In a groundbreaking work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business and law, Bronwyn Parry links firsthand knowledge of the operation of the bioprospecting industry to a sophisticated analysis of broader economic, regulatory, and technological transformations to reveal the complex economic and political dynamics that underpin this new global trade in bio-information.

Contents

Part 1: Introduction Part 2. The Collection of Nature and the Nature of Collecting Revealing the Social and Spatial Dynamics of CollectingCollecting as Simple Acquisition: Decontextualization and ExoticizationCollection as Concentration and ControlCollection as Recirculation and RegulationNew World CollectorsPart 3: Speedup: Accelerating the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting Retheorizing Life Forms: Material and Informational?The Rise of the Information and Bio-Information EconomiesEmerging Markets: The Regulation of Trade in Bio-InformationPart 4: New Collectors, New Collections "When the world was a kinder and gentler place": Early Players and Vacation Pursuits"An historic revival of collecting"Impetus for the Revival: Technological ChangeThe Biodiversity Convention: New Protocols and New RationalesGATT TRIPs: New Protections, New IncentivesThe Practice and Process of CollectingPart 5: The Fate of the Collections From Reproduction to Replication"Build it for us"Combinations and PermutationsThe Diminishing Role of in situ CollectingThe Advent of MicrosourcingRe-mining ex situ CollectionsThe Emerging Trade in Collected Genetic and Biochemical MaterialsHire Plants: Renters and BrokersTransacting Bio-Information: Licensing and "Pay-per-View"Part 6: Taming the Slippery Beast: Regulating Trade in Bio-Information Compensatory Agreements: The Rise of a Proto-Universal Culture of Regulation?Networks, Capillaries, and the Geography of Knowledge SystemsCompensatory Agreements: Investigating Terms and ConditionsInfrastructural Support and Technical TrainingFuture Benefits: Royalty PaymentsTaming the Slippery BeastRegulating the Unlicensed Copying of Bio-InformationConcentration and Control: Patenting Collected MaterialsThe Complexities of "Co-Inventorship"Part 7: Back to the Future

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Biography

Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer who holds a senior research fellowship at King's College, University of Cambridge.