The 1970s saw significant reforms in US food safety regulation, including the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 and the passage of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in 1972. These reforms were a response to growing public concern about the environmental and health impacts of pesticides and other chemicals in the food supply. The decade also saw the rise of the consumer movement.

The food safety reforms of the 1970s were a subject of interest for poets and writers who were concerned with environmental and social justice. The decade saw the emergence of a new wave of nature writing and poetry that explored the connections between food, health, and the environment. Writers like Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder were influential in this movement.