A Minnesota native awaits confirmation for No 2. post at the agency. 

WASHINGTON – A Minnesota native who spent the past 20 years as the chief lobbyist for the soybean industry is poised to move into regulating it in the No. 2 job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Stephen Censky, who grew up in Jackson, Minn., is President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of agriculture. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, his 21 years as CEO of the American Soybean Association could be a boon to the industry in his home state, the country’s third-largest soybean producer. The association’s Minnesota affiliate has more members than any other state.

Censky played a major role in last year’s passage of the first federal law to mandate labels for foods that contain genetically modified organisms, or GMOs — a controversial and wide-ranging initiative that affects soybean farmers, grocery stores and food companies from Kraft to General Mills. The federal law invalidated a GMO labeling law in Vermont that agricultural and food interests opposed over concerns that different standards in just one state would lead to higher costs for national companies.

“Farmers will lose, and ultimately consumers will lose, as a safe and valuable tool for sustainable food production is driven from the marketplace by activists who got a state to pass ill-conceived legislation that devastates farmer livelihoods and raises food costs for all Americans,” Censky said last year.

Some advocates wonder if Censky’s previous work compromises his ability to provide oversight of the industry he just represented. He’s one of many Trump administration government nominees who hail from sectors that their new agencies regulate.

“When you’re deputy secretary, your job is to serve all Americans, including but not limited to soybean farmers,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, which pushed for stronger labeling standards. “So a big challenge will be ensuring that the GMO disclosure rules … work for consumers.”