Environmentalism in the US started with a book, Silent Sprint, in 1962, which pointed out that when you poison pest species, you also poison the predators that

Environmentalism in the US started with a book, Silent Sprint, in 1962, which pointed out that when you poison pest species, you also poison the predators that prey on them, and risk shooting yourself in the foot that way. So pretty much the #1 line item in American environmental law was to restrict access to pesticides.