The Onion Futures Act

Suppose I say to you, dear reader:

"I have a hot tip. Onion futures! If you invest a modest sum of money with me, I will invest it in futures.

"You'll really like dem onions. I have a solid inside source at the exchange."

If I ever say this to you, then 'I' have gone over to the dark side. RUN.

There is no such thing as an onion future on ANY exchange in the US or in Europe or, so far as I know, anywhere on the globe.

The US has the distinction of having an act of Congress on the books saying that onions are not to be subject to futures trades. The Onion Futures Act was created at the insistence, back on the 1950s, of one Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan. His district was the epicenter of US onion growing, and he decided early on in his career that futures speculation in the crop was inherently crooked.

Ford had standard mid-20th-century laissez-faire opinions on a lot of subjects, but futures trading in onions: NOT ON MY WATCH!

The US seems to have led the world in this inactivity.

I learned of this at a conference in London, in 2006 I think. It was quite an ordinary conference -- not much to write about, though that was why I was there so I came up with something. But the story about Gerald Ford, almost twenty years before a combination of Agnew's peccadillos and the more massive matter of Watergate made Ford the President of the United States, THAT stuck to me. He singled out onions as NOT to be speculated on.

If you research this a bit, you will find some version of the phrase "onions are a condiment, not a food stuff". I'm not sure why that fact required an Onion Futures Act, which does not cover mayonnaise or ketchup futures at all. (Does anyone buy or sell those?)

Just thought I'd pass it on to you.

You're welcome.

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