Labor lobbyist Beth Moten wasn’t expecting the farm bill to be high on her list of priorities this year.

But Moten, the legislative and political affairs director for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has been busy putting together a campaign against an obscure provision inserted into the House version of the farm bill (HR 2419). Moten wants to make sure the language, which would allow state-inspected meat and poultry products to be shipped to other states, doesn’t end up in the Senate bill.

The provision is one of several little-noticed changes made by House Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., in eleventh-hour dealmaking to secure enough votes to pass the bill.

But the horse-trading also created losers, some of whom are hastily assembling ad hoc lobbying efforts designed to appeal for changes in the Senate version of the bill.

Peterson added the inspection provision to the bill in July at the urging of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, which has long fought to allow state-inspected meat products to be sold across state lines. Labor and food safety groups say they were blindsided by the move — especially after the AFGE had rallied a few extra labor votes in the House for Peterson’s bill.

“We had no idea about this until after the committee was done marking up,” said Moten, whose union has had little stake in past farm bills but now is teaming with consumer-protection groups to lobby senators on the food inspection issue.

On another front, the crop insurance industry is fighting to restore House funding cuts for administrative and operating reimbursements. Peterson had trimmed funding in committee to pay for other farm bill priorities. David Graves of the American Association of Crop Insurers said the industry went along with Peterson’s reductions in committee, only to be shocked to see additional funding cuts advanced by the Rules Committee.

“We were hijacked by the Rules Committee,” Graves said. He said House members — including Democrats Henry A. Waxman of California and Jim Cooper of Tennessee, who contend that the crop insurance industry is riddled with fraud and corruption — were responsible for the additional funding reductions.

At the same time, the Food Marketing Institute is trying to determine whether an alternative to a mandatory fruit and vegetable labeling program, added to the House bill at the last minute, is politically feasible in the Senate.

Under current law, only federally inspected meat-processing plants are allowed to ship most meat and poultry products across state lines.

“There are a lot of people in the agriculture world who think this is simply outdated and unfair,” said Charlie Ingram, director of legislative and regulatory affairs for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

The provision added to the House bill would allow state-inspected facilities to sell their products in other states, Ingram said. This, he said, would let smaller, family owned food processors that find the federal inspections cumbersome compete more broadly.

The AFGE, which represents the federal inspectors, has teamed with food safety groups in an effort to beat back the state inspection language in the Senate. Building on a spate of food recalls earlier this year, the coalition argues that state inspections are not as thorough, could cost federal workers their jobs and could endanger workers in the processing facilities.

The success of efforts to sway senators may hinge on whether the Senate writes its own bill or decides to take up the House bill on the floor and bypass committee debate. “States don’t have the authority or the resources to do these inspections well,” said the AFGE’s Moten.

Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says he’ll mark up his bill next week, but he’s been slow to reveal details. Aides say Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is pressuring Harkin to move.

Although lobbyists and aides speculate that Harkin doesn’t have enough committee votes to support his bill, which would likely cut back farm subsidies and boost conservation funding, they do not expect Reid to circumvent the chairman of a major committee.

At the same time, Republican senators, uneasy about tax and labor provisions in the House bill, could erupt if that version is automatically taken up on the floor.

Other than announcing last week that he wants a farm bill or extension passed by Oct. 8, Reid has been quiet. He has said nothing about taking up the House measure.

“We know nothing about that,” said a Reid aide.