Legislative news on Capitol Hill isn’t usually a Young & Hungry staple, but hey, this is a company town! The U.S. Senate passed “the biggest overhaul to the nation’s food safety laws since the 1930s, voting 73 to 25 to give vast new authorities to the Food and Drug Administration,” The Washington Post reports this morning.

As the bill was being considered, a schism formed between big agriculture and small farmers. John Tester, a farming Montana Democrat, unsuccessfully pushed an amendment that would have exempted small farmers and farmers markets.

The Post‘s Lyndsey Layton writes:

But the Tester amendment has angered large agriculture groups, which argue that no one should be exempted from producing safe food. The Produce Marketing Association and the United Fresh Produce Association have withdrawn their support for the bill in light of the Tester amendment.

The fight over the nation’s food continues …