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

Free the Onion Futures!

University of Chicago students want Congress to repeal the 1958 Onion Futures Act, which banned futures trading on onions after a notorious market manipulation scheme.

US student protesters look to repeal law on onion futures trading

A group of US student protesters are seeking to repeal a law banning the trading of onion futures.As student protests turn violent in France and fears are raised of similar chaos on Britain's streets, a group of University of Chicago students have turned their attention to a problem they feel could actually be solved - the ban on onion futures trading.Adam Ash, the founder of protest group For Our Futures, told GB News why they felt now was the …

You can trade contracts on elections, but not on onions. These college students want to fix that.

A University of Chicago student group wants to repeal a 1958 law banning onion futures, a tool farmers use to hedge against price swings.

Student Group, Sponsored by Kalshi, Protests Onion Futures Act at Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Approximately 30 UChicago undergraduates and Kalshi affiliates gathered on Monday morning outside the Loop headquarters of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group—the world’s largest financial derivatives trading marketplace—to protest the 1958 Onion Futures Act. Kalshi, an online prediction market platform, paid for a bus to bring students from campus and provided branded merchandise and breakfast for the group, according to Adam Ash, a thi…

The college students want to reverse an obscure ban on trading onion futures

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Illinois Students Protest 68-Year-Old Law Banning Onion Trading, Show Up With ‘Free the Onion’ Signs: ‘The Most UChicago Protest of All Time’

University of Chicago students took their protest to the streets of downtown Chicago in Illinois with cardboard signs, a megaphone, and a giant inflatable onion. Their unusual demonstration targeted a decades-old federal law that bans onion futures trading.  “Up up with speculation, down down with regulation” pic.twitter.com/yC8sdzOHcv— For Our Futures (@foronionfutures) October 19, 2026 The protest took place on October 19, 2026, outside the C…