Agricultural Advisory Committee – Commissioner Dunn
“I don’t think there’s a silver bullet or single solution for what ails the market place. And certainly the solutions that come up cannot be implemented overnight. But I firmly believe that the market participants are the best qualified to come up with solutions that will ensure that we have viable, fair agricultural futures markets that will provide for price discovery and risk mitigation.”CFTC Commissioner Michael V. Dunn chairs the Agricultural Advisory Committee. Committee members include representatives of national farm organizations, major commodity groups, agribusiness concerns, and agricultural bankers.
“I don’t think there’s a silver bullet or single solution for what ails the market place. And certainly the solutions that come up cannot be implemented overnight,” said Commissioner Dunn. “But I firmly believe that the market participants are the best qualified to come up with solutions that will ensure that we have viable, fair agricultural futures markets that will provide for price discovery and risk mitigation.”
The Agricultural Advisory Committee was created in 1985 to advise the Commission on issues involving the trading of agricultural commodity futures and options and facilitate communications between the CFTC, the agricultural community, and agriculture-related organizations.
Recent meetings of the Agricultural Advisory Committee addressed various topics, including: agriculture and the Dodd-Frank Bill; implementation of variable storage rates on the Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures contract; convergence trends in the Kansas City wheat futures contract; the delivery point study commissioned by ICE Futures U.S. for the Cotton No. 2 Contract; and issues in livestock reporting.
Michael V. Dunn, Commissioner
Michael V. Dunn was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 21, 2004, as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He was sworn in December 6, 2004, to a term expiring June 19, 2006. On June 16, 2006, Commissioner Dunn was nominated by President Bush to a second term as Commissioner of the CFTC and confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 2006. In a ceremony on August 23, 2006 at the Federal Court House in Des Moines, Iowa, attended by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Commissioner Dunn was sworn in. U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt administered the oath of office.
From January 20, 2009 – May 25, 2009, Commissioner Dunn served as Acting Chairman for the agency.
Commissioner Dunn additionally serves as Chairman and Designated Federal Official of the Commission’s Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC). The AAC was created to advise the Commission on agricultural issues surrounding the trading of commodity futures and options and to serve as a communications link with the agricultural community. Commissioner Dunn is also the Chairman of the Commission’s Forex Task Force. The task force objective is to raise the public’s awareness of fraudulent activity in the retail foreign currency (forex) futures and option markets and to highlight the Commission’s enforcement activities in this area.
Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Dunn served as Director, Office of Policy and Analysis at the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) where he managed the two FCA divisions responsible for developing regulations and public policy positions for applicable statutes as well as promoted the safety and soundness of the Farm Credit System (FCS). Prior to this position, Mr. Dunn served briefly as a member of the FCA Board.
Mr. Dunn has also served as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Acting Under Secretary for Rural Economic Community Development, and as Administrator of the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Mr. Dunn has had a long involvement in agricultural credit dating back to the late 1970s, when he was the Midwest Area Director for the FmHA. He has been a loan officer and vice president of the Farm Credit Banks of Omaha and has served as a member of the Professional Staff of the Senate Agricultural Committee, specializing in agricultural credit. At the USDA, Mr. Dunn also served as a member of the Commodity Credit Corporation and Rural Telephone Bank Board. He is a past member of the Iowa Development Commission and has served as the Chairman of the State of Iowa’s City Development Board.
A native of Keokuk, Iowa and a current resident of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Mr. Dunn received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of New Mexico.