In a groundbreaking work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business and law, 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 the new global trade in bio-information.

Part 1: Introduction Part 2. The Collection of Nature and the Nature of Collecting Revealing the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting Collecting as Simple Acquisition: Decontextualization and Exoticization Collection as Concentration and Control Collection as Recirculation and Regulation New World Collectors Part 3: Speedup: Accelerating the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting Retheorizing Life Forms: Material and Informational? The Rise of the Information and Bio-Information Economies Emerging Markets: The Regulation of Trade in Bio-Information Part 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 Change The Biodiversity Convention: New Protocols and New Rationales GATT TRIPs: New Protections, New Incentives The Practice and Process of Collecting Part 5: The Fate of the Collections From Reproduction to Replication "Build it for us" Combinations and Permutations The Diminishing Role of in situ Collecting The Advent of Microsourcing Re-mining ex situ Collections The Emerging Trade in Collected Genetic and Biochemical Materials Hire Plants: Renters and Brokers Transacting 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 Systems Compensatory Agreements: Investigating Terms and Conditions Infrastructural Support and Technical Training Future Benefits: Royalty Payments Taming the Slippery Beast Regulating the Unlicensed Copying of Bio-Information Concentration and Control: Patenting Collected Materials The Complexities of "Co-Inventorship" Part 7: Back to the Future

Parry has a clear, incisive style...making Trading the Genome a forceful, considered and thought-provoking analysis of one of the most important issues of our time. -- Adrian Barnett New Scientist Trading the Genome is strongly recommended as an eye-opener to the practices of the modern pharmaceutical industry. Naturalist This book is a welcome addition to the literature and will be a valuable resource...Well worth the read. -- Brendan Tobin Nature One of Parry's major contributions is to open this rather closed world to scrutiny. -- Felix Driver Jouranl of Historical Geography Maintaining a dogged grip on some very important and heretofore-unasked empirical questions, Parry leads us into ground on which it is easy to feel that no critical eye has yet gazed. -- Morgan M. Robertson Progress in Human Geography Parry takes a highly complex field and makes it easily accessible through her clear and incisive style. -- Gerard Porter Social & Legal Studies

In a groundbreaking work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business and law, 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 the new global trade in bio-information.