Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, recently announced the creation of a new philanthropic initiative called Invest an Acre.

Raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett has had a lifelong interest in the agricultural industry. Beginning in 1977, Buffett entered the farm workforce, operating a Tekamah, Nebraska farm owned by his father. Buffett currently farms 400 acres in Nebraska and over 1,200 acres in his current home in Illinois.

Like his father, Buffett has committed himself to a variety of philanthropic causes. Mixing his love of farming with his charity work, Buffett has become a major spokesperson for agricultural conservation, often using his farms as laboratories for green farming experiments. For example, Buffett is currently a major advocate of no-till agriculture.

In addition to conservation, Buffett has committed himself to fighting hunger, both at home and abroad. To this end, his Invest an Acre initiative hopes to reduce hunger in rural American and increase awareness of nutritional problems. The initiative asks participating farmers to donate the profit from one acre’s crop to Feeding America, a charity dedicated to combating food insecurity in the United States.

“Poverty and hunger in rural America is very much out of sight, out of mind,” Buffett said. “It doesn’t jump out at you. It’s not like the brazen images of starving children in Ethiopia, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t just as devastating to people who are hungry.”

Hunger and nutritional programs have received new attention nationwide as budget battles in Washington have led the House of Representatives to propose some of the deepest cuts to the Food Stamps program in a generation.

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer