  In the minimal supersymmetric standard model, the conservation of R-parity is
phenomenologically desirable, but is ad hoc in the sense that it is not
required for the internal consistency of the theory. However, if B-L is gauged
at very high energies, R-parity will be conserved automatically and exactly,
provided only that all order parameters carry even integer values of 3(B-L). We
propose a minimal extension of the supersymmetric standard model in which
R-parity conservation arises naturally in this way. This approach predicts the
existence of a very weakly coupled, neutral chiral supermultiplet of particles
with electroweak-scale masses and lifetimes which may be cosmologically
interesting. Neutrino masses arise via an intermediate-scale seesaw mechanism,
and a solution to the $\mu$ problem is naturally incorporated. The apparent
unification of gauge couplings at high energies is shown to be preserved in
this approach. We also discuss a next-to-minimal extension, which predicts a
pair of electroweak-scale chiral supermultiplets with electric charge 2.
