The worries of small food producers and farmers over the very real prospect the U.S. Senate will pass major new food safety legislation, possibly within days, is well known.

Less well known is the upset of the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its major loss of turf to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. USDA has even had language included that “prohibited the FDA from ‘impeding, minimizing, or affecting’ USDA authority on meat, poultry, and eggs,” according to Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. In other words, some legislators have been trying to come to USDA’s rescue.