A culinary cage-match between D.C.'s restaurant owners and food truck operators is currently being waged in the stomachs of Washington residents and on the desks of city government and here's the catch - many GW students are unaware of it.

The City Council is presently considering Title 24, a proposition that would tailor the District's existing food vendor regulations to fit the recent wave of food trucks frequented by college students and "yuppies" alike. But local restaurant owners and their big brother business districts are not fond of losing customers to these newcomers.

According to the "Yes on Title 24" website, "some very powerful businesses are lobbying the City Council to prevent us from serving you where you work. The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), on the other hand, has proposed vending regulations that would allow us to continue to serve you AND allow for a more vibrant vending culture in the District."

The DRCA announced that Title 24 "amends vending regulations in order to achieve the safe, efficient, and effective management of vending throughout the District of Columbia. This rulemaking includes provisions governing vending licensure, vendor operations, the designation of sidewalk and roadway vending locations, public markets, vending development zones, street photography, and solicitation from the public space."

It is clear that the special interests of big money have hijacked a simple economic manifestation of supply and demand. And in a city where lobbying and legislation get results more often than compromise and consumer-friendly competition, the District's inline businesses and their coalitions are using the law to fight back. Well-financed entities like the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, the Dupont Circle Merchants and Professionals Association have all submitted proposals asking the D.C. Council to put new restrictions on trucks.

One proposal from a group representing restaurants in Adams Morgan asks the city to prohibit food trucks from parking "within a 100 feet of an existing food establishment of any kind." The same group wants food trucks banned entirely from areas designated as "entertainment districts," like U Street NW and Chinatown.

But many restaurant owners' objections are not unfounded. If you talk to enough restaurateurs you will begin to recognize some valid complaints. Arianne Bennett, co-owner of the Amsterdam Falafelshop in Adams Morgan points out several discrepancies between restaurants like hers and food trucks: the unfair disparity in sales tax rates (restaurants pay 10 percent on sales, food trucks pay a flat $1,500 annually), the sidewalk congestion that trucks can create, problems with trash and litter and, as Bennett points out, the trucks' lack of responsibility to the neighborhood in which they vend.

Food truck operators confess that they are willing to cooperate with the requests of their more established, "brick and mortar" competitors. Leland Morris with Red Hook Lobster Pound food truck said, "We really want to work in partnership with restaurants, not to compete with them. We're not the only reason why people come to an area and we certainly wouldn't pull up in front of a competitor to take away their business. That's not what we're about. Also, a competitor's response shouldn't be let's get rid of them, it should be how to we step up our game and be better. Let's keep it what it is - it's small business."

Other food truck owners argue that they provide a unique benefit for District's residents. Justin Vitarello, founder of the Fojol Bros. food truck argues that food trucks can actually create business in certain places. "There's nothing going on at 20th and L," he says, offering an example. "We can help [businesses] with that. We can activate some spaces."

Jeff Kelley, co-owner of EatWonky, a new DC Food Truck said, "Fundamentally, the argument is that variety in dining options is a net benefit to those who work and live in DC." The facts seem to support Mr. Kelley's argument. More than 47,000 Twitter followers have embraced the city's dozen-plus food trucks. One of these followers is 1L Ben Burningham who says, "I enjoy food trucks and local restaurants, both have their niche in the market and a place in my stomach."

Obviously, there is more to every argument than meets the eye, especially when it involves something as important as great food. Whether you are a food truck aficionado or a connoisseur of local dives, or even both, express your comments and thoughts to your City Council representative.