Remember that feeling you got when you were going out on a date for the first time? That was about how I felt when I got off the airplane in Prague in 2012. It had been forty-three years since I had seen Vera. I walked through Immigration and I immediately recognized her. As we hugged, it was as though I had never left. Photo: Howard W. Buffett
I knew about Prague’s resurgence over the years, but I had never been back. HWB had visited a couple of years ago and talked about what a beautiful and interesting city it was. For me, it was wonderful to see that a place so grim and at times frightening as Prague was during those tense years in the late 1960s could, in fact, recover and be so vibrant and beautiful today. The bullet holes in the walls of buildings have been patched over. The same streets where people lined up for hours to buy stale bread and potatoes are now full of ice-cream parlors and sweet shops, internet cafés, and mobile phone stores. Vera and I laughed about the time we went to the countryside during my first visit, and I saw some Russian soldiers I wanted to photograph. That was strictly forbidden, so I had her pose as if I were taking her picture and then moved the lens at the last minute. Today tourists are everywhere, smiling, laughing, and snapping pictures at will. For fun, I asked HWB to take a photo of me with a female Czech police officer. He could not appreciate how impossible such a shot would have been in 1969.
Life can get better. Challenges can be overcome. Determination and hard work can make a difference. A city whose people could not count on where their next meal was coming from is now thriving. I returned home with a renewed spirit. I will always be a pessimistic optimist, but the effort to lift people out of the dehumanizing and painful state of food insecurity will always be worth it. And sometimes it will even work.
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge the following individuals who made this book possible:
Our family, Warren and Astrid Buffett, Susan A. Buffett, Peter and Jennifer Buffett, Pam Buffett, Lili Buffett, and “the girls,” Erin, Heather, Chelsea, and Megan.
A special thank-you to a group of individuals making the most of their forty chances, many of whom helped bring our stories to life: Ben Affleck, Padre David Beaumont, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jake Blank, Kofi Boa, Debbie Bosanek, Paul Brinkley, Gaye Burpee, Dan Cooper, Colonel Kurt Crytzer, Maura Daly, Shannon Sedgwick Davis, Joe DeVries, Mansour Falls, General Wamala Katumba, General Stanley McChrystal, General David Petraeus, General David Rodriguez, General John Uberti, Allen Greenberg, Kate Gross, Paul and Ali Hewson, President Paul Kagame, Ann Kelly, Don and Mickie Keough, Francis Kleinschmit, Rob Lalka, Annette Lanjouw, Tim LaSalle, Eva Longoria, Amani M’Bale, Graham McCulloch, Shakira Mebarak, Maria Emma Mejia, Laura Melo, Emmanuel de Merode, Zlatan Milisic, Clay Mitchell, Jim Morris, President Yoweri Museveni, Trevor Neilson, Doug Oller, Laren Poole, Ed Price, Jose Quiroga, Andy Ratcliffe, Jorge de los Santos, Sheriff Tom Schneider, Ritu Sharma, Josette Sheeran, Carlos Slim, Anna Songhurst, Jerry Steiner, Roy Steiner, David Stevenson, Amanda Stronza, Vera Vitvarová and her family, and Joe Whinney.
Thank you to those who have supported our foundation’s efforts: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dennis Avery, Susan Bell, Matt Berner, Herminio Blanco, Sabra Boyd, Nicki De Bruyn, Tracy Coleman, Trisha Cook, Erica Dahl-Bredine, Jim Doherty, Sarah Durant, Jendayi Frazer, Catriona Garde, Francis Gatare, Bill and Melinda Gates, Helene Gayle, Paula Goedert, William Hart, Tarron Hecox, Molly Heise, Wolfram Herfurth, Jim Houlihan, Judy Inman, Charlie Jordan, Patrick Karuretwa, Muhtar Kent, Scott Kilman, Jon Koons, Kepifri Lakoh, Alex and Lani Lamberts, David Lane, Marla Leaf, Marco Lopez, Tom Mangelsen, Emily Martin, Angela Mason, Patti Matson, Lucy Matthew, Louise Mushikiwabo, Ron and Jane Olson, Laura Parker, Nic Prinsloo, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, Richard Ragan, Domenica Scalpelli, Sheryl Schneider, Robert (Hondo) Schutt, Jim Shafter, Raj Shah, Daniel Sheehan, Dennis Sheehan, Tom Sloan, Willem VanMilink, Mike Walter, Rosa Whitaker, Molly and Mike Wilson, and Ambassador Andrew Young.
We also thank these individuals who have provided support and counsel over the years: Mike Albert, Jorge Andrade, Dwayne Andreas, Marty Andreas, Marianne Banziger, Dwayne Beck, Spencer Beebe, Brian Beyers, George Kwaku Boateng, Jeff Boatman, Julie Borlaug, Kevin Breheny, Deputy Sheriff Tony Brown, Lane Bunkers, Michelle Carter, John Cavanaugh, Sue Cavanna, Michael Christodolou, Eric Clark, Kathleen Cole, Hank Crumpton, Ed Culp, Sheriff Mark Dannels, Gabriela Diaz, Natalie DiNicola, John H. Downs Jr., Jamie Drummond, Marc D’Silva, Ann van Dyk, Loren Ehlers, William B. Eimicke, Ezekiel Gatkuoth, David Gilmour, Ricardo Gomes de Aravjo, Bill Green, Charlie Havranek, Paul Hicks, Jim and Nadine Hogan, William Holmberg, Marlyn Hull, Bashir Jama, Mary Obal Jewel, Kathy Kelley, Joey King, Peter Kinnear, Jim Kinsella, Dave Koons, Margaret Lim, Peter Lochery, Jonathan Lynch, Liz McLaughlin, Sheriff Mike Miller, Gus Mills, Jeannie O’Donnell, Kay Orr, Fred Potter, Ed Prussa, Christine Rafiekian, Jeff Raikes, Deb Ray, Bill Roberts, Eugene Rutagarama, Alberto Santos, Dan Schafer, Sue and Walter Scott, Neale Shaner, Senator Paul Simon, Jamie Skinner, Mark Smith, Todd Sneller, Mark Suzman, Scott Syslo, Scott Terry, David Thomson, Schuyler Thorup, Camilla Toulmin, Lucas Veale, US Marshal Adam Walter, Don Wenz, Mike Wenz, Otto Wenz, Wayne Wenz, Jerry White, Layne Yahnke, Mike and Gail Yanney, Bryan Young, and Bob Zhang.
I also want to thank our agent Jillian Manus, who recognized the value in a book that could help us share with others the lessons we have learned over many years. Her introduction to Simon & Schuster gave us a great team that was committed to supporting our efforts. We would not have been able to publish this book without the hard work of our editor, Ben Loehnen; our publisher, Jonathan Karp; or the tireless efforts of Richard Rhorer, Lance Fitzgerald, Meg Cassidy, Lisa Erwin, Mara Lurie, Marie Kent, Emily Remes, Brit Hvide, Irene Kheradi, Gina DiMascia, Brittany Dulac, Jill Putorti, and Michael Accordino. And we could not have asked for a better partner and collaborator than Joan O’C. Hamilton. She listened to and synthesized our thoughts and experiences in a way that made the process productive, and the insights meaningful. She paid meticulous attention to every detail and, more importantly, made it fun. We thank Joan for making this book a reality.
HOWARD G. BUFFETT is the Chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. A farmer, businessman, politician, photographer, and philanthropist, he has dedicated his life to wildlife conservation and finding solutions to world hunger. He is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Against Hunger and serves on the corporate boards of Berkshire Hathaway, the Coca-Cola Company, and Lindsay Corporation. His son, HOWARD W. BUFFETT, has authored several of the stories in 40 Chances and accompanied his father to developing countries around the world. WARREN E. BUFFETT, father and grandfather to each, respectively, is the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
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Notes
Introduction: One Shot at a Warlord
1. The US Department of State estimates that at the height of LRA activities, two million people were displaced, and UNICEF estimates that sixty-six thousand children were abducted, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/03/186734.htm.
2. http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/102562.
3. http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats.
Story 1: The Day I Heard the Clock Tick
1. http://faostat3.fao.org/home/index.html.
2. http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap.aspx.
> 3. http://www.fao.org/infographics/pdf/FAO-infographic-SOFI-2012-en.pdf.
4. http://www.fao.org/nr/sustainability/food-loss-and-waste/en.
Story 2: Prague, 1968: The Soviet Army Eats First—“We Just Get What Is Left”
1. Background on the Soviet invasion at http://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/soviet-invasion-czechoslavkia.
Story 3: From Bulldozing Dirt to Building Soil
1. US Agriculture: Feeding the World and Investing in Our Future, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, 2010.
2. http://www.ncga.com/upload/files/documents/pdf/WOC%202013.pdf.
3. For a fuller picture of the Ethiopian famine, see http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1915544,00.html.
Story 4: Devon’s Gift
1. For more background on these schools, see http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/04/15/senegal-boys-many-quranic-schools-suffer-severe-abuse.
Story 5: Because “Al Called”
1. http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html.
2. For more background on the Convention on Biological Diversity, see http://www.cbd.int/history.
3. http://www.wineportfolio.com/sectionLearn-Great-French-Wine-Blight.html.
4. http://www2.nau.edu/~bio372-c/class/sex/cornbl.htm.
5. Statistics from H. G. Buffett, Research in Domestic and International Agribusiness Management, vol. 12 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1996).
6. http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20elsalvador.htm.
Story 6: The Ovarian Lottery
1. To view the interview, see http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/1368.
2. Carol Loomis talked at length with Warren Buffett about his giving plan: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune.
Story 7: Reality Has a Nutty Taste, Especially When Fried
1. http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Counprof/malawi/Malawi.htm.
Story 8: Where Hunger Hides
1. More information on ADM at http://www.adm.com/en-US/news/Facts/Pages/20Facts.aspx.
2. http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap.aspx.
3. Population data from Google Public Data.
Story 9: Loved but Lost
1. I am grateful to physicians from the United Nations World Food Programme for their assistance in preparing this material. For more background, see http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/malnutrition/en/index.html.
2. http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Community_Based__Management_of_Severe_Acute_Malnutrition.pdf.
Story 10: Empty Calories
1. For more information on micronutrient deficiencies and undernutrition in Guatemala, see http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/en/ and http://reliefweb.int/report/guatemala/breaking-malnutritions-cycle-guatemala.
2. http://www.micronutrient.org/english/View.asp?x=620.
3. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes/index.html.
4. In his 2007 book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, David Montgomery spells out the gradual decline of productivity caused by extensive tilling and grazing on slopes, which disrupt food production and can force relocation of local populations.
Story 11: Little Cromite
1. For background, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094194.
2. http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94037/SIERRA-LEONE-Amputees-still-waiting-for-reparations-almost-10-years-on.
3. http://data.worldbank.org/country/sierra-leone.
Story 12: Sex and Hunger in Timbuktu
1. For background on trafficking in the US, http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/17/trafficking-and-the-u-s.
2. http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/wi/rls/rep/crfgm/10105.htm.
Story 16: Shakira
1. See the history of school feeding in the US at http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/AboutLunch/ProgramHistory_2.htm and in US Agriculture: Feeding the World and Investing in Our Future, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, 2012.
Story 17: A Franciscan Padre in the Sierra Madre
1. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/1988.
Story 18: Gorillas Versus Guerrillas
1. For more on Virunga’s gorillas and crises, see http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text.
Part 3. Hard-Learned Lessons
1. Dambisa Moyo, “Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa,” The Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123758895999200083.html.
Story 19: Can This Village Be Saved?
1. Estimates of land mines in Angola vary by a wide margin. The NGO Halo Trust, an NGO, has been clearing mines in Angola for seventeen years: http://www.halotrust.org/where-we-work/angola.
Story 20: A Complicated Legacy
1. http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Tracking_Progress_on_Child_and_Maternal_Nutrition_EN_110309.pdf.
2. For more background on fertilizer use in India, see this video report prepared in 2010 by the Wall Street Journal: http://live.wsj.com/video/over-fertilized-soil-threatens-india-farmlands/81484D0D-5086-4AEE-AD84-E22C62AA89DD.html#!81484D0D-5086-4AEE-AD84-E22C62AA89DD.
3. http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/9.6.06/9.6.06/BorlaugGreenRevolution.pdf.
Story 21: For Yields to Go Up, We Have to Look Down
1. Jeremy Grantham’s thoughts can be found in his firm’s July 2011 GMO Quarterly Newsletter: “Resource Limitations 2”; also in http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/magazine/can-jeremy-grantham-profit-from-ecological-mayhem.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
2. http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000874/index.html.
3. Losing Ground: Iowa’s Soil Erosion Menace and Efforts to Combat It (Des Moines, IA: Soil Conservation Service, 1986). Access report at http://www.whybiotech.com/resources/tps/ConservationTillageandPlantBiotechnology.pdf.
4. From Juergen Blaser, Alastair Sarre, Duncan Poore, and Steven Johnson, Status of Tropical Forest Management 2011 (Yokohama, Japan: International Tropical Timber Organization, June 2011).
Story 211/2: Owners Make Better Farmers
1. http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2497e/i2497e00.pdf.
Story 23: What Does Doing Better Look Like?
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/world/asia/26tsunami.html.
2. E. Kessler, The International Community’s Funding of the Tsunami Emergency and Relief: Local Response Study Overview (Bangkok: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, 2005).
3. From After the Tsunami: Human Rights of Vulnerable Populations (Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, October 2005).
Story 24: “Who Came Up with This Crazy Idea?”
1. http://www.gao.gov/assets/330/320017.html.
2. As of mid-2013, several aid organizations, including CARE and the international NGO OXFAM, have become more vocal in calling for aid reform in Washington, but several other charities have joined agribusinesses and shippers in opposing changes to current monetization policy. For background see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/us/politics/white-house-seeks-to-change-international-food-aid.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2&.
3. http://www.gao.gov/assets/330/320013.pdf and http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat2/152624.pdf.
Story 25: A Six-Beer Insight
1. http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/index.php?id=9502.
2. General information about Sudan and South Sudan from http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html.
Story 26: Less Than Sparkling
1. http://www.fao.org/nr/water/docs/WRM_FP5_waterfood.pdf.
Story 27: Elephants and Experts
1. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/20/world/africa/cameroon-elephants-killed/index.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/world/africa/africas-elephants-are-being-slaughtered-in-poaching-frenzy.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
2. http://www.academicjournals.org/IJBC/PDF/pdf%202010/Sept/Monney%20et%20al.pdf.
Story 28: Can Smarter Carrots Save Soil?
1. Total based on data collected by the US Department of Agriculture.
2. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-commodity-
policy/government-payments-the-farm-sector.aspx#.UXI5QL9Vf_4.
3. According to the US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, about a quarter of the nation’s population lived on farms in the 1930s, when not quite half of the population lived in rural areas, which is a broader category. See Carolyn Dimitri, Anne Effland, and Neilson Conklin, The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy, no. 3 (Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, June 2005), http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/259572/eib3_1_.pdf.
4. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census, 1975), part 2.
5. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, less than 1 percent of the US population now claim farming as an occupation, and about 2 percent of the US population live on farms. See http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html.
6. Robert Hoppe and David E. Banker, “Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition,” USDA Economic Research Service, Economic Information Bulletin (EIB-66), July 2010, http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-information-bulletin/eib66.aspx#.UXsox4IrcXw.
7. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/technical/nra/nri/?cid=stelprdb1041887.
Story 29: Chains That Unlock Potential
1. Andrew Lawler, “Remains of Bamiyan Buddhas Yield Additional Details About Statues’ Origins,” Washington Post, March 5, 2001, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/05/AR2011030504131.html.
2. http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta/TOCTA_Report_2010_low_res.pdf.
Story 32: Does Aid Plant Seeds of Violence?
1. This trip was where we got to know Dr. Ed Price of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University. This meeting in Jalalabad was where we finally traveled when the fog lifted in Kabul.
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