Soft Fork: All hail the Onion King

We’re going to take a break this week from crypto to talk about the onion king. No, not that one. Our onion king’s name is Vincent Kosuga, and he is the reason onions are the only agricultural product not legally allowed to have a futures market.

Our story starts in the U.S. in the 1950s. Vincent Kosuga was a farmer with a 5,000-acre farm in Pine Island, N.Y. On his farm, Kosuga grew onions, celery and lettuce. Among his customers were soup giant Campbell’s Soup and the United States Army. As a farmer and an active markets trader, Kosuga was familiar with futures markets. For farmers, futures markets were a way to hedge their bets in growing and selling their crops — locking in a predetermined price for a crop to be delivered at a future date provides a reliable stream of income.