Howard Buffett: Farming and finance

Howard: You always have tough husks in this part of the world.

And cracking it in half. His verdict?

Howard: You've done an excellent job with-- with what you got.

Since Howard's program started, Carla has doubled her income. In one way at least he is like his dad: He insists that the farmers learn accounting and managing credit, and that they buy their own seed.

Howard: They're looking for the standard kernels.

Howard Buffett is making a big difference but on a small scale. He started out giving farmers the best of modern agricultural technology, but now he only teaches methods they can afford themselves after his projects end.

Howard's passion for farming started early. When he was just five, he turned the family backyard into a cornfield. His father was fast becoming a multimillionaire, but the family always lived modestly.

Stahl: Did you know, as a kid, that you were rich?

Howard: No. Not at all. And the greatest story is my sister, who when you had to go around the room in grade school and answer, "What does your father do?" And, you know, we knew him as a security analyst. And we had no idea what that really meant. And so she basically said, "Well, he's a security guard." And that's what we thought for a long time. We just didn't know any differently, you know?

As his father's fame and fortune grew, Howard seemed to zig and zag on his own path, dropping out of three colleges, one after the next.

Stahl: You must've been worried, or concerned.

Warren: I wasn't.

Stahl: You weren't?

Warren: No, I wasn't. He was just kind of finding what he wanted to do.

Stahl: And so it didn't--

Warren: --so it made no difference to me if he found it in a college or not.

Stahl: Really? Now that is an unusual parent.

Warren: It is an unusual parent. But it was the way both his mother and I felt. None of our kids graduated from college. Now if they pool all of their credits, we can get a degree.

Stahl: One degree!

Warren: Yeah. Just pass it around!

Once Howard settled on farming, Warren bought land for him, but then made his son pay rent, and tied it to his body weight.

Stahl: So if you gain weight your rent goes up and if you lose weight the rent goes down?

Howard: Something like that. Financial incentives are supposed to work in some things. They don't work very well in weight incidentally.

Stahl: But why wouldn't you just give your son a farm?

Warren: Well, I just don't think that's, you know, the way to bring up a son. I mean, I don't think he's entitled to be given a farm just because his last name is Buffett. We didn't want them to see the world, you know, through the lens of a super rich kid that got everything he wanted.

Stahl: You just didn't want spoiled little rich kids.

Warren: Yeah. Yeah.

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[Rock0671]

I'm happy that the Buffetts spend there money in other countries but why don't they do more for the middle class and poor that are in the United States where they made their fortunes and where they live.

[rosequeenlatina]

Good story...glad to know there is there`s good people out there who care about people in need. Hook me up with his e-mail I definetely need to share a story with him. Thank you