Brands Matter: Nature, Economy, and the Gift

In this essay, we propose that the relationship between intellectual property right and the appropriation of nature is best understood by shifting the focus of attention from production to the consumption of commodified organic substance, proposing in particular that the eating of meat offers an instructive site of inquiry. The analysis takes us from diverging accounts of the transformations wrought by the contemporary appropriation of nature to their shared presuppositions about political economy. We argue for a shift from Marx to Mauss. As a result, we suggest, obligation displaces exploitation as the pivotal relationship around which current understanding of intellectual property right and the appropriation of nature might be recast.