ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 examines the global politics of access, dealing with species of plants as a subject of international agreements and governance mechanisms. Rather than considering ‘access’ as a push back to the rules of ownership and the commodification of life, the chapter shows how a new generation of ‘miracle crops’ is being launched as integral to an organisational model wherein global targets for environment-related policy making cannot be dissociated from the aspirations of the life sciences and sophisticated techniques. Not only is the model ineffective, but also thinking across the types of ‘access’ that are possible shows that exclusivity should be rethought in terms of high-tech forms of gifting, charity, and altruism that are becoming a global norm. The theoretical aim behind the chapter is to show how such a norm expresses a state of exception wherein life and law collapse amidst the constant need to guarantee access within the confines of the complex interplay of exclusive claims – of states over genetic wealth in their territory through intellectual property protections, state-based regulation, and new governance mechanisms that dissolve earlier distinctions between public and private.
