Congress may have wiped its hands of the GMO labeling bill it sent to the White House last week, but the fight is far from over.

 

Over the next two years, the Department of Agriculture will be the new battleground in the GMO-labeling war as it implements the nationwide labeling requirements. Every organization from the Grocery Manufacturers Association to the Environmental Working Group is now homing its sights on the department, looking to influence its decisions on what the symbol on the package denoting GMO ingredients should look like, the amount of genetically engineered contents a product must contain to trigger that and other labeling, and other related regulations.

 

USDA is preparing for the onslaught.

 

Indeed, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — who has been deeply involved in the debate — will need to move quickly to get the rulemaking well underway before the next administration takes over or risk losing its specific vision, all while waiting for the probably inevitable lawsuit from industry or interest groups to drop once the rules go final.

 

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