The National Parks Service is considering a proposal to allow private companies to own the genetic resources

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In a season when crowds are rioting over $600 video game consoles, and O.J. Simpson could sign a deal for millions with the Murdoch empire to reenact the "hypothetical" murder of his wife and her friend, it may seem like absolutely everything is now for sale in our mercenary culture.

The latest evidence of this comes from, of all places, one of the most trusted and admired of federal agencies. The National Park Service (NPS) is quietly taking public comment through Dec. 15 on a proposal to allow private companies to "bioprospect" in our national parks -- to commercially mine, not the mineral riches of a park, but the genetic resources of plants, animals, and microorganisms in territories specifically set aside for stewardship in the public trust.

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In the global south, home to much of the world's genetic diversity, this battle has already been underway for decades. In a process reminiscent of Columbus, transnational corporations have been using Western courts and laws to patent genetic codes and plant and animal life that existed long before any humans were around to "discover" them or own their "rights." The struggle against such legal chicanery has often been led by indigenous peoples who've relied upon the riches of their environments for millennia without the assistance of lawyers or scientists (or shareholders). Suddenly, they've been told they no longer have the right to use those riches -- or, worse, they can use them, for a price, paid to distant companies with no truly legitimate claim to their use.

This, in the south, is referred to as "biopiracy," and it seems like an appropriate term to start using in America as well. National Parks, beginning with Yellowstone (whose geothermal features were instrumental in both the park's original founding and the commercial appeal of "bioprospecting"), were set aside as lands to be owned and used by the public. Their early stewardship, beginning with Yellowstone, was specifically intended by Congress to exclude high-value heritage lands from the rapacious development of much of the surrounding West. We are the owners of these lands -- but their resources are now apparently for sale, in ways large and small, without the permission or even knowledge of the rightful owners. That's piracy.

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The Park Service will, and has, argued that in a time of scarce public funding, commercial opportunities such as this can bring in valuable revenue to help preserve the park system. But what point is preserving a public park system whose parts can all be privately claimed? More to the point, these resources are not the federal government's to sell: They belong to all of us. And most especially to the point, there are some things that simply shouldn't be for sale. Life is an obvious one. It's one thing to sell chickens; it's another to sell the exclusive rights to Gallus gallus.

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Public comment deadline is Dec. 15, 2006.

Geov Parrish is a Seattle-based columnist and reporter for "Seattle Weekly," "In These Times" and "Eat the State!" He writes the Straight Shot column for WorkingForChange.

[Reba 2]

maybe Yellowstone will just blow up before they can sell any of it off?