Biopiracy
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The appropriation of indigenous biomedical knowledge, especially by patenting naturally occurring substances. derogatory, uncountable
"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."
- 2 biological theft; illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use wordnet
Example
More 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."
Etymology
From bio- + piracy, coined by Canadian environmentalist Pat Roy Mooney in the early 1990s.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.