40 Chances to Feed the World

OMAHA (DTN) -- Howard G. Buffett is making a $3 billion philanthropic investment to improve global food security, and with the new book "40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World," three generations of the Buffett family explain how they plan to help the world's most vulnerable people.

Every year marks another chance to improve global food security and the premise of "40 Chances" is simple. There are essentially 40 years before the global population rises to more than 9 billion people. A recent United Nations update now projects roughly 9.2 billion people by mid-century. The book looks at the magnitude of those numbers and the challenges of creating a world where people don't starve. Essentially, we have fewer than 40 chances to get it right, Howard G. Buffett argues.

If we get our "40 Chances" to work out, then philanthropy groups such as the Howard G. Buffett Foundation could close shop.

"40 Chances" has been out just about a week, but it has soared in sales, according to Amazon.

The book describes how Howard G. Buffett, son of the world's most famous billionaire investor, became a farmer and developed a passion for both feeding hungry people and teaching some of the world's poorest farmers how to improve their lot in life.

Warren Buffett writes a foreword for his son and grandson, describing Howard G. Buffett as a restless young man "zigzagging through life," trying to find a way to leave his mark on the world. Howard's philanthropy and photography have exposed him to dangers most people would avoid. "His fearlessness has meanwhile exposed him to an array of experiences more common to adventurers than philanthropists. Call him the Indiana Jones of his field," Warren Buffett wrote.

Howard G. Buffett also describes how he moved into farming through his lifelong fascination with big machines. He got into business as a dirt mover. That wasn't exactly easy in Nebraska where his father is called the "Oracle of Omaha." When Howard Buffett decided he wanted to be a ditch digger, he tried to get a job operating bulldozers and backhoes. More than one businessman told Howard no, partially because laborers won't tolerate a rich man trying to take their jobs "Kid, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You wouldn't last five minutes with my union guys. Get the hell out of my office."

"40 Chances" and its promotion have become a chance to see Warren, son Howard G. and grandson Howard W. Buffett interact and talk about global hunger through the voice of one major family philanthropy effort. Howard W. Buffett wrote some of the stories in the book and has taken a leading role in his father's foundation.

Each chapter of "40 Chances" is essentially a story about individual challenges or success stories from different parts of the world in producing food, though the book centers heavily on the various complications of food production in Africa.

"40 Chances" explains what is often misunderstood by Americans and Europeans. Roughly 90% of African farmers are farming because there is no other option. These farmers don't have equipment or fertilizers. They don't have ways to store food, either. They are largely malnourished and live isolated lives.

In other words, the world's poorest farmers can't just pick up American farming practices and make everything good. New models are needed to teach people how to farm and work with others to make that into a valuable endeavor. As "40 Chances" states early on, "We can't just fund activities and good intentions; we have to fund self-sustaining solutions."

Speaking to National Public Radio this week, Howard G. Buffett explained a couple of examples where policy and lack of planning fail to help feed the world.

"We don't have the kind of farm labor we need to do two things: One is to pick all the food and collect all the food that we grow, there's a huge amount of waste," Howard G. Buffett said to NPR. "Second of all, that waste is a great opportunity for food banks. And then we have to have volunteer base incentives to support a volunteer base to move that food into the food bank system. There's millions and millions of pounds of food that could be used for that, and a lot of it is good food. It's nutritious food."

While citing the failures of government policy and other philanthropy efforts, Buffett acknowledges his work on feeding the world has had its own share of missteps. He states early in the book that the entire effort is to show "about how I got involved in trying to attack global hunger, and what my team at the Howard G. Buffett foundation and I discovered, attempted, unleashed, fouled up, achieved, and learned on our journey so far."

"40 Chances" offers a great overview of the pitfalls of global food philanthropy and what needs to change. Of course, we won't know how the story ends for another 40 years.

Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@telventdtn.com

(AG/CZ)

Copyright 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.