Free Markets

You Can Trade Contracts on Elections, but Not on Onions. These College Students Want To Fix That.

Students at the University of Chicago are rallying to repeal the 1958 Onion Futures Act to give onion producers a tool that corn and wheat growers already have.

Tosin Akintola | 10.20.2026 2:22 PM

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(Photo: For Our Futures/X)

On Monday, a group of students from the University of Chicago stood outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange—one of the world's largest and most diverse derivatives marketplaces—and called for the repeal of an obscure 1958 law that bans onions as futures products traded on U.S. exchanges. 

Attracting an audience with a humorous jingle and amusing signs that included "Onions Deserve a Future," "Honk If You Want Free Onions," "Hot Girls Hedge Onions," and "Free Markets Feed Families," the student group, named For Our Futures, has........

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