Howard Buffett is promoting a brown revolution to improve soil productivity and help feed the world's billions
When it comes to feeding the world's hungry people, the game-changer is no-till conservation agriculture. "Soil is any farmer's most valuable working capital," says Warren Buffett's son Howard G. Buffett, who spends most of his time managing the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, based in Decatur, Illinois. "Soil fertility has the single largest impact on production capacity."
Buffett and his son Howard W. Buffett were in Seattle recently to discuss their new book and manifesto, 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World. Both men are farmers, and Warren Buffett has said he'd like Howard G., 58, currently a board member at Berkshire Hathaway, to succeed him as non-executive chairman.
"Forty chances" refers to 40 seasons--the number of chances a farmer probably gets to plant his crops and improve them. When Howard G. heard the idea, it stopped him cold. Realizing that it applies to other aspects of life, too, including philanthropy, he wondered if he was making the most of his chances-listening to new ideas, learning from his mistakes. He'd been making donations since the late l980s--usually in the area of wildlife conservation. But he had had an epiphany when a colleague pointed out that "no one will starve to save a tree."
In 2006, Warren Buffett announced he was giving away the bulk of his fortune. At the same time, he challenged his son by asking him if he had the resources to do something great, what would he do? Howard G. realized that if he really cared about habitat protection and biodiversity, he'd have to focus of a more fundamental issue: hunger and food security for the world's poorest billion people.
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