ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the social factors that contributed to the government’s decision to use aerial pesticide spraying to eradicate the painted apple moth. First, it relates the pesticide response to a cultural setting whereby people naturally turn to pesticide technologies to address its ecological problems. The analysis also situates the pesticide response within the country’s capitalist political economy, where there has been a long track record of prioritizing economic growth at the expense of human health. This chapter also discusses how the stage was set by Auckland’s 1996–1997 pesticide spraying operation to eliminate the white-spotted tussock moth, which also took place in densely populated urban neighborhoods and set an important precedent. Lastly, this chapter considers MAF’s bungled initial response to PAM, which allowed the moth to spread far and wide and alarmed forestry industry officials, who increasingly pressured MAF to administer aerial pesticide spraying over Auckland suburbs. This chapter should help readers better understand how contextual forces can compel government officials to use aerial pesticide spraying over densely populated urban areas.
