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40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2014

by Howard G Buffett (Author), Howard W. Buffet

4.5 273 ratings

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With a foreword by Warren Buffett, 40 Chances is an “inspiring manifesto…both an informative guidebook and a catalyst for igniting real changes” (Booklist) in the struggle against world hunger.

If someone granted you $3 billion to accomplish something great in the world, what would you do? In 2006, legendary investor Warren Buffett posed this challenge to his son Howard G. Buffett. Howard set out to help the most vulnerable people on earth—nearly a billion individuals who lack basic food security. And Howard gave himself a deadline: 40 years to put the resources to work on this challenge.

40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World captures Howard’s journey. Beginning with his love for farming, we join him around the world as he seeks out new approaches to ease the suffering of so many. Each of the 40 stories here provides a compelling look at the lessons Howard learned, ranging from his own backyard to some of the most difficult and dangerous places on Earth. But this message goes beyond the pages of this book, it’s also a mindset: a way of thinking that speaks to every person wanting to make a difference. It’s about reasons to hope and actions we can take. 40 Chances “recounts Howard’s personal and professional experiences in surprisingly candid and colorful fashion…successfully blending personal stories with a tough look at the struggle to fight domestic food scarcity and world hunger…A satisfying read” (Publishers Weekly) that provides inspiration to transform each of our limited chances into opportunities to change the world.

Print length

464 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 21, 2014
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.1 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

9781451687873
ISBN-13

978-1451687873
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Howard G. Buffett is the President 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.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1451687877
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (October 21, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781451687873
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1451687873
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.1 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #971,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #359 in Philanthropy & Charity (Books)
- #2,759 in Business Professional's Biographies
- #28,557 in Memoirs (Books)

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4.5 273 ratings

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Gayen

"Forty Chances" - good storytelling, and good non-fiction... about the world's agriculture food supply practices

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2015

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Howard G. Buffett is an excellent storyteller! ...despite the seriousness of the topic(s): sustainable food production and hunger/malnutrition.
His book are his own, first-hand experiences - both as a farmer/philanthropist...learning about local farming practices around the world!
In "Forty Chances", a few chapters are success stories! Buffett writes with compassion, sometimes sharing warm or humorous accounts of individuals or groups....but always with throughout purpose,
Buffett raises serious concerns/even alarms... about the destructive agriculture practices around the world. He focuses on our world's history(s) of food production, about issues - including differences in soils & weather between the northern/southern hemispheres.
His writing is terse, without polemics!...
Buffett is deeply concerned about food in-security(s) and how geography (weather/soil conditions) makes a huge difference in what will/will not secure the supply of affordable food.He makes the case for HOW & WHY we must improve worldwide food security/sustainability....
Buffett makes his articulate case(s) for facing our immediate and longterm worldwide food needs - and how to re-think production practices & distribution.
Buffett is knowledgable, articulate, with personal, firsthand farming knowledge. He admits he loves big farming machines - but NOT ever 'at the expense' of both large & small farming operations and the all-important issues of climate and soils... nor the need for sustainable (long-term) production successes.He describe work of well-meaning governments, and some nonprofit agency's and their failures to understand the impact of local weather, crop failures, economic conditions, market access/transportation, local political and /or military conflicts.

Buffett advocates that international agencies, individual national govts, and nonprofits must all understand the real, local conditions (weather/water/soil/financial/politics/transportation) ...that always affect food production and distribution.
And... that local farmers (big & small) need encouragement/education on how to use sustainable farming practices, for their own hoped-for long-term economic sustainability.

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is one of the best books I have read. I have a passion for global food security and this book addresses issues that people do not normally discuss. The hardcover was a great option for me as I have already read it twice and plan to lend it out to many people. The idea of 40 chances is explained on a local level, how many times a farmer typically harvests his field, and how many years left the Howard Buffett Foundation has left to complete its goal. The website for this book has many resources worth checking out. They did a variety of interviews around that book release that could be helpful to check out if you are unsure of the content.

This book would be of interest to anyone, not just people interested in agriculture or international development.

2 people found this helpful

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Thomas G. Field, Jr.

Not an easy read.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2013

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Howard Buffet and his son offer many valuable insights into the causes of widespread hunger, abuses of women and other social problems.

The book contains much information that many will find useful and interesting. For example, being raised on a small farm, I found Bufffet's accounts of modern large-scale farming fascinating. I also appreciated his and his son's careful explanations for why U.S. mid-western farming techniques, or even close approximations, cannot be exported. Most compelling, perhaps, were reports of inefficiently dispersed aid. These are, however, coupled with careful accounts of, for example, logistical and political difficulties faced in overcoming inefficiencies, incompetence and worse.

Thus, 40 Chances is not an easy read. Because it offers much to digest, I could not credit a claim that anyone did so without ample breaks. Difficulty is exacerbated because key information often seems randomly presented. The book would be more easily read and useful were it better organized.

One person found this helpful

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Crazy quilter

40 Doses of Hope.

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

I have just finished reading 40 Chances and I am filled with hope that world hunger and food insecurity has some amazing people who think the big picture and are putting in the hard yards to really solve the problem. This is the first time I have felt compelled to acknowledge a book in this way. I think the Buffet family, all three generations are examples of people who are using their wealth in ways that benefit all. Well off people also now have an example of how to work harder, think of others and most importantly to find other like minded people with whom they can form partnerships to do better.
I have known about Warren Buffet for quite a while and had bought my father, a retired banker, Snowball which he read and advised me to also read, but I knew little of his children and grandchildren. I was sitting in Hamburg eating my lunch watching Piers Morgan, which I came in half way through and saw the three generations of Buffets and heard about the book 40 Chances and by the time the interview was finished I had downloaded the book to my Kindle.
I was born in outback Australia and grew up in country NSW for the first 10 years of my life and although I was then a city child I have a connection to the country. Having seen first hand what happens to soil with traditional tilling I believe H G B and H W B are on the right track. Thanks also for letting us know what others are doing in this field. It was good to hear about the failures as well as the successes as failure leads to better outcomes next time and it is good that failures can be seen as a learning exercise and not a blame game.
I am now going to buy 2 more copies of this book in paper form for my father who grew up on a dairy farm and my for brother a high school geography teacher who I am sure will read this book and spread the word.
Thanks to all the Buffets for appearing on CNN for otherwise I may not have known about this book and wouldn't have read it. You have given me the power to help spread the word buy being able to talk to others about this book and to also give this book to others to spread the word. Who knows to where it will lead. I hope to an answer to world hunger and food security for all and I sincerely hope that one day you will put yourself out of work in this area and move on to something else that needs big picture thinkers. I give this book 5 stars and recommend it as a must read for anyone who cares about what happens to our world.

7 people found this helpful

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SENGER

Sehr bewegendes Buch!

Reviewed in Germany on March 7, 2018

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Wer sich schon immer gefragt hat, warum Hilfe nicht ankommt und wie man es besser machen, dieses Buch gibt Einblicke in Hintergründe und eröffnet neue Sichtweisen.

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A. D. Thibeault

A Brief Summary and Review

Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2013

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*A full executive summary of this book is available at newbooksinbrief dot com.

The main argument: In the developed world, the vast majority of us enjoy a standard of living unmatched in the history of humankind—and going hungry is the last thing on our minds. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that poverty and hunger have been eradicated in the developed world entirely (in the United States, for example, 1 in 6 are considered food insecure—including 16 million children). Still, the greatest problems with poverty and hunger continue to exist in the developing world. Indeed, despite substantial improvements over the past 30 years, poverty remains a significant issue, and nearly a billion of the world’s 7 billion people still face chronic hunger (while about twice that number are malnourished in some way)—and millions starve to death every year.

It is not that many well intentioned people and organizations have not spent a great deal of time and money trying to solve the world’s poverty and hunger issues. Indeed, over the past half century the amount of resources that have been poured into these problems is staggering. So, just why do the problems of poverty and hunger stubbornly persist?

Well, at least part of it has to do with the fact that there are several significant obstacles standing in the way—everything from armed conflict, to corrupt governments, to particular cultural practices etc. The humanitarian Howard G. Buffet has been involved in fighting poverty and hunger for upwards of 30 years, and knows these obstacles all too well. However, Buffet insists that there is yet another reason why all of the well-intentioned efforts have fallen short of reaching their ultimate goal. And that is that many of the approaches have proven to be inadequate (if not downright counter-productive).

The fact is that most of the aid flowing to the poorest parts of the world has been (and continues to be) in the form of projects that are meant to help people in the short-term. For example, NGOs commonly enter an area, drop off bags of seed and fertilizer, and then turn around and leave. This approach may help the area for a season or two, but in the end the seed and fertilizer do run out, and the community is right back to square one. Thus the approach acts more as a band-aid, than a self-sustaining solution that addresses the root causes of poverty and hunger.

Thankfully, in Buffet’s 30 years of work as a philanthropist he has learned that there is indeed a better approach, and one that stands a much better chance of rooting out poverty and hunger for good. The more effective approach is much less about aid as development—less about helping people as enabling people to help themselves.

The development approach involves linking subsistence farmers up with the larger economy, and establishing a self-sustaining ecosystem that will allow this connection to be maintained into the future. It involves things like helping to establish agricultural schools and private seed companies; working with farmers to improve farming techniques and yields (and not in a way that assumes that what has worked well in one place—or one’s own backyard—will work everywhere); establishing grain storage systems; physically connecting farmers to markets; and working with governments to establish and maintain the infrastructure (especially roads) needed to make the system work smoothly.

The development approach may be more involved and take longer to get off the ground, but it pays off in the end, as when it is done well, it only has to be done once (Buffet speaks often about NGOs needing to take an approach that ultimately puts themselves out of business).

And helping impoverished farmers join the larger economy is not just a matter of helping them help themselves. The fact is that the world’s population is continuing to grow, while we are running out of good farmland to farm. The UN estimates that in order to feed the world’s projected 9 billion people by 2050, farmers everywhere will need to increase the planet’s food production by 70%. Part of the solution to this problem must involve helping the world’s subsistence farmers to produce a surplus to help everyone.

But the solution doesn’t end there. Farmers everywhere, including in the developed world, will need to increase their yields to meet the growing demand. However—and this is important—farmers will need to increase their yields in a sustainable way. That is, they will need to do so in a way that does not degrade the soil, or threaten the world’s fresh water or woodlands—as too often happens now.

Thankfully, Buffet’s experience as a farmer (which he has been practising even longer than philanthropy) has shown him that here too there is a solution. And a big part of this solution is a very straightforward approach known as no-till farming. No-till farming is an approach that eschews tilling the soil in favor of planting nitrogen-fixing cover crops. The approach not only increases water retention, saves soil, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, it also helps increase yields (and thus it’s a win-win solution). Now it’s just a matter of convincing other farmers of this—which is a big part of Buffet’s project.

This is a fantastic book. Don't let the fact that Buffet is the son of one of the wealthiest men on the planet dissuade you from taking him seriously. The author may have had a head start in life, but he stands on his own two legs, and he has used his privileged position to help him gain perspective (rather than let it make him arrogant and entitled). Anyone interested in the hunger problem (and the best way to approach it) would be well advised to read this book. A full executive summary of the book is available at newbooksinbrief dot com; a podcast discussion of the book will be available soon.

3 people found this helpful

Jonathon and Sandra Gowen

highly recommended for everyone to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

Inspirational and a great collection of real life stories. A true and pragmatic picture of today's world..... Everyone needs to help in their own capacity. Best, Jonathon

Srini KM

Five Stars

Reviewed in India on August 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

An amazing book that gives the reader a worldview narrative on agriculture practices.

One person found this helpful

Jean R

Very good and inspiring book, I can only recommend reading it!

Reviewed in France on March 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

Very good and inspiring book, I can only recommend reading it! It's very pleasant to read and very very instructive, refreshing and inspiring.

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