INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — When Howard G. Buffett, farmer, philanthropist and son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, arrived in Indianapolis last weekend, folks asked him if he was in town for Super Bowl XLVI.

He responded with a swift, “No. I’m here for the Super Bowl of Agriculture. The Purdue Ag Fish Fry.”

After a resounding applause from nearly 5,000 Purdue Ag alums in the packed Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the state fairgrounds on Saturday, Feb. 4, Buffett shared his keynote address on tackling the growing issue of soil erosion, as well as both world and domestic hunger issues.

“Did you know that 80 percent of farmers surviving off of small plots of land two acres of less struggle to feed their own families everyday,” he said. “It’s amazing after 30 years of innovation in ag and millions are still starving worldwide.”

Buffet, who said he’d much prefer the seat of a tractor to a board room, established the Howard G. Buffett Foundation in 1999 to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s most impoverished populations. He is involved with the farming of 14,000 acres worldwide including 1,240 acres on his home farm in Illinois.

“So yea agriculture is a big deal to us,” he said, adding that “farming really goes side-by-side with hunger.” “The fact that one in four children go to bed hungry every night is simply unacceptable.”

According to Buffett, 21 million students receive government subsidized lunches every day, with Indiana home to an astounding 1 million hungry Americans, 35 percent of those who don’t meet the federal requirement for assistance. “Hunger is complicated,” he said. “How we’re going to succeed at making a change is going to take a long-term commitment.”

Buffet said the solution to global food security begins right under our feet. The soil.

“It’s used as a commodity with a short-term gain,” Buffett quipped. “It’s an productivity problem and economically and environmentally problematic and the eventual cause for a worldwide food security issue. The erosion issue today is greater than that of the Dust Bowl (1930-36).”

Since the 1970s, four billion tons of topsoil has been lost, he added.

“That’s a lot of dirt, Buffet responded, adding it’s easy to ignore slowly erode soils from cultivation, but it’s down the road that will be severely impacted by the loss. 

He referred to the “loss” not as private farmland, but as a “national asset.”

“We need to reduce soil erosion and our environmental footprint – and that’s challenging,” he added. “Someone will tell us how to come up with a solution or we’ve got to come up with a solution ourselves.”

A firm proponent of no-till production, Buffett believes that crop productivity and higher crop yield is a proven outcome of long-term soil conservation. 

“No-tilling has cut my machinery use in half, besides doing what’s right for the soil. It’s both profitable and doable,” he said.

Buffett who noted little affiliation with Purdue, did mention that the Hoosier land-grant school has been very successful with research and education efforts in agronomy.

“But that information needs to get out into the field, because it’s the farmers that really understand the challenges and limiting factors and they are the ones who will be responsible for making the change for our future,” he said.

It’s a challenge to spur such a revolution, said Buffett, adding that nearly 21 percent of America’s land is highly-degraded.

“And to continue to increase production on less land with fewer resources to meet the growing demands of food worldwide,” he said, referencing 75 million more mouths to feed with every new year. “We need to be responsible enough to aid future generations.”

On the domestic issue of hunger, Buffett believes that everyone needs to step up and lend a helping hand and no better partner in that solution than a farmer.

“Hunger in the United States is behind closed doors, but the impact is no less than the images of starving children in Africa portrayed by the media,” he said. 

”Loss of soil is a direct link to our hunger issues. We use our field cultivators to fill in the ruts and technology has kept pace. But we don’t really see what we’re losing. We are all contributing.”

Buffett challenged the farmers in the audience to become a part of the solution to ending domestic hunger issues by donating the proceeds from one acre of crop production to a local food bank. 

“Have them make the check out the food bank directly,” he said.

When questioned about the dependency of Americans on government handouts such as unemployment, welfare and food stamps, he said the long-term solution is to create more jobs.

“We need to lead by example, in our own communities on our own terms,” Buffett said. “We’re hoping to engage farmers across the country in this effort.”

Buffett also challenged the leaders of the National Corn Growers’ Assoc. to move soil conservation toward the top of its priority list. 

“It’s not even on the top ten. We need the leaders in ag to hear this message and we need stronger leadership from our political organizations who have the will to do it,” he said.

In solving world hunger issues abroad, Buffett said the key is to get farmers into the marketplace.

“Unfortunately, there are many hurdles to cross in impoverished countries of rural Africa such as financial education, distribution and handling, not to mention wading through the deep layers of corruption,” he said.

Buffett added that passing along our advancements in technology and innovations will help empower African farmers to solve their own issues instead of trying to send them food and money, which only sustains a short-term solution.

“A lot of people have been doing it wrong for the past 10 years. People have to be able to solve their own problems,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, you go home and they are left to make their own money and solve their own problems. “

Buffet added that “it doesn’t matter how many projects we start … if we don’t’ begin to adjust the fundamental policies that exist (including the culture, resources, and corruption) then nothing will change.”

When asked what changed for Buffett, why did he want to get involved in the hunger issue, he said, “there wasn’t any singular event, my mother took me to the projects in North Omaha to help at soup kitchens. I’ve seen it my entire life … learned about the issue growing up. It was important to my mom that I understood what was going on in the world and that we help in any way that we could.”