The following comment was placed by a farmer in a forum on Agweb.com:
Illinois/Wisconsin border: If the CBOT ever vanished, we would all be in serious trouble. How else would you be able to offset your risk? That’s the job of the futures market...to allow me to put off my risk onto someone else (think speculators). If you want to call the CBOT a "legalized gambling center" with "manipulated markets" and "insider trading" then that’s your business. But just remember, those "gambling market manipulators" gave you the option to sell $7 corn through 2010 and $6.50 corn for 2011. In my opinion, you lose the right to complain if you are given an opportunity but don't take advantage of it. I certainly didn't sell all my crops at those prices but I can't blame anyone but myself because the opportunity was there.
