Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-423) and index.

Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction: one shot at a warlord -- Story 1: How I realized i had only "40 chances" -- Story 2: Prague, 1968 : "The army eats first : we get what is left" -- Story 3: From bulldozing dirt to planting soil -- Story 4: Devon's gift -- Story 5: Because "al called" -- Story 6: The ovarian lottery -- Story 7: Reality has a nutty taste, especially when fried -- Story 8: Where hunger hides -- Bravery, courage, and hope -- Story 9: Loved, but lost -- Story 10: Empty calories -- Story 11: Little cromite -- Story 12: Sex and hunger in Timbuktu -- Story 13: Loss in Armenia -- Story 14: Farming under fire -- Story 15: Seeds of change -- Story 16: Shakira -- Story 17: a franciscan padre in the Sierra Madre -- Story 18: Gorillas v. guerillas -- Hard-learned lessons -- Story 19: Can this village be saved? -- Story 20: A complicated legacy -- Story 21: For yields to go up, we have to look down -- Story 21 1/2: owners make better farmers -- Story 22: What does doing better look like? / by Howard W. Buffett -- Story 23: Disconnects -- Story 25: A six-beer insight -- Story 26: Less than sparkling -- Challenges we need to figure out -- Story 27: Elephants and experts -- Story 28: Can smarter carrots save soil? -- Story 29: Chains that unlock potential / by Howard W. Buffett -- Story 30: A walk to the well -- Story 31: Souped up yields from stripped down tools -- Story 32: Does aid plant seeds of violence? / by Howard W. Buffett -- Reasons to hope -- Story 33: Opening what once was cerrado -- Story 34: Chocolate-covered opportunities -- Story 35: Fired up in Ghana -- Story 36: Buy local! -- Story 37: Hungry for data -- Story 38: The power of a piece of paper -- Story 39: Farmer of the future / by Howard W. Buffett -- Story 40: Help for a "poor relation" -- Epilogue: an optimistic pessimist returns to prague.