| | Foreword | p. xi |
| | Introduction: One Shot at a Warlord | p. 1 |
| | The Roots of "40 Chances" | p. 7 |
| | The Day I Heard the Clock Tick | p. 9 |
| | Prague, 1968: The Soviet Army Eats First-"We Just Get What Is Left" | p. 18 |
| | From Bulldozing Dirt to Building Soil | p. 28 |
| | Devon's Gift | p. 43 |
| | Because "A! Called" | p. 54 |
| | The Ovarian Lottery | p. 65 |
| | Reality Has a Nutty Taste, Especially When Fried | p. 72 |
| | Where Hunger Hides | p. 80 |
| | Bravery, Courage, and Hope | p. 93 |
| | Loved but Lost | p. 95 |
| | Empty Calories | p. 99 |
| | Little Cromite | p. 105 |
| | Sex and Hunger in Timbuktu | p. 112 |
| | Loss in Armenia | p. 119 |
| | Farming Under Fire | p. 126 |
| | Seeds of Change | p. 132 |
| | Shakira | p. 142 |
| | A Franciscan Padre in the Sierra Madre | p. 147 |
| | Gorillas Versus Guerrillas | p. 153 |
| | Hard-Learned Lessons | p. 163 |
| | Can This Village Be Saved? | p. 165 |
| | A Complicated Legacy | p. 175 |
| | For Yields to Go Up, We Have to Look Down | p. 186 |
| | Owners Make Better Farmers | p. 197 |
| | Disconnects | p. 202 |
| | What Does Doing Better Look Like? by Howard W. Buffett | p. 213 |
| | "Who Came Up with This Crazy Idea?" | p. 222 |
| | A Six-Beer Insight | p. 234 |
| | Less Than Sparkling | p. 241 |
| | Challenges We Need to Figure Out | p. 257 |
| | Elephants and Experts | p. 259 |
| | Can Smarter Carrots Save Soil? | p. 273 |
| | Chains That Unlock Potential by Howard W. Buffett | p. 283 |
| | Women May Be Key, but Don't Ignore Men | p. 298 |
| | Souped-Up Yields from Stripped-Down Tools | p. 308 |
| | Does Aid Plant Seeds of Violence? by Howard W. Buffett | p. 317 |
| | Reasons to Hope | p. 327 |
| | Opening What Once Was Cerrado | p. 329 |
| | Chocolate-Covered Opportunities | p. 340 |
| | Fired Up in Ghana | p. 351 |
| | Buy Local! | p. 362 |
| | Hungry for Data | p. 374 |
| | The Power of a Piece of Paper | p. 382 |
| | Farmer of the Future by Howard W. Buffett | p. 388 |
| | A New Approach to Governance | p. 400 |
| | Epilogue: A Pessimistic Optimist Returns to Prague | p. 409 |
| | Acknowledgments | p. 413 |
| | Notes | p. 417 |
| | Index | p. 425 |