biocolonialism
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Exploitation or misappropriation of the biological resources (particularly plants and fungi) of indigenous peoples.
Example Sentences
- "In my opinion, many of the problems with the safety of our food supplies are directly related to biocolonialism. Food produced by anonymous sources in other countries under less than acceptable conditions is no way to ensure our good health."
- "Its major sponsors consist of some of the largest and most environmentally destructive companies in the world – including Citigroup, Exxon Mobil Foundation, and McDonalds^([sic]) – and it has been accused of being a corporate front designed to greenwash its sponsors' images and act as ‘the friendly face of biocolonialism.’"
- "The HGDP [Human Genome Diversity Project] met an ignominious and unexpected end when tribal leaders accused the scientists of biocolonialism, for exploiting native genetic information in the same way that European colonizers had exploited their ancestors’ natural resources."
Etymology
From bio- + colonialism.
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
biocolonialisms (plural)