FAC Create:
We mobilize local communities to create agro innovation hubs globally
FAC Collaborate:
We facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources to achieve a bigger goal
FAC Cultivate:
We support you so that you can make a positive impact in the world
Carla Tanas established the Future Agro Challenge as a result of being a citizen of the world, having lived in three continents including the US, Middle East and Europe. As a creative person, Carla believes deeply in human nature and has been working systematically for the last 10 years for a creative upheaval, a change of mentality in the world as a tool of social, cultural and of course economic development through knowledge. She is also the co-founder of Industry Disruptors-Game Changers (ID-GC), a non-profit organization that started – amid the crisis in Greece – the democratization of entrepreneurship in the country, helping young people to follow their dreams and ideas, to escape from stereotypes and fears and become industry disruptors and game changers in their field.
The impetus and drive behind Carla’s passion to ‘revoultionize the world’s menu’, came in 2015 when she became a mother. It was then that Carla decided to focus, through Industry Disruptors, on one of the biggest problems on our planet, which is that by 2050 we will not be able to feed more than 9 billion people in a healthy and sustainable way. Assessing that agriculture could be a sustainable source of growth and economic development for Greece, Carla took a systems-wide approach and thought about the impact on the whole network of people in the industry if the gaps were examined and new resources created. She knew that for this work to be done, agripreneurs needed to be brought to the frontlines.
This is how the Future Agro Challenge was born, a global platform that focuses on innovation from farm to fork by integrating all cultures to fix the complex food system, and empowering farmers as the caretakers of the earth. FAC now has presence in 64 countries on all five continents. The organisation builds a dialogue and acts as a convener to find the best revolutionary and feasible solutions that can be held up high for the world to see there are other ways. These solutions are brought forward to industry experts, policy makers, private sector, and media to help shape the complex global food chain system.
Carla is an agripreneur ecosystem builder and she believes this is a role that is driven by passion and a way to make sense of the world through a constructive approach with a positive impact. It is a lens to see how the world works, and how you could improve it. As a result of living in Greece, Carla is able to breathe in the ancient philosophies and connect them with innovation, making the process instinctual and the possibilities for solutions endless.
However, what is challenging for Carla is that an eco-system builder is such a new “profession” (if that is what you could call it) and the process of undertaking this sort of work needs long term vision. The difficulties Carla can see are the ways global society is composed of, and assessed by immediate goals, economic growth and job creation. In contrast, ecosystem building is measured in valuable connections created and innovative designs of how people could connect, which is difficult to measure. Eco-system building has a long lasting positive impact, but very few are aware of what this is.
Carla believes that the Future Agro Challenge provides an integral solution for the global food community. FAC is fundamentally about building trust, listening to the farmers as a knowledgeable asset, and designing new possibilities for feeding the world.
One of the most important lessons Carla has learned about agripreneurs and aginnovation is that most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG goals) for 2030 could be met if we focused in and supported our agripreneurs, impact makers, and aginnovation. She advocates agriculture is the source of our being and understanding our soils and natural ecosystem is the integration between self, environment and society. This is also fundamental to our education system, which Carla believes has been left behind.
Carla’s achievements are many and she is currently wearing more than one hat as she splits her days between different professions, all of which integrate well together. One of Carla’s greatest contributions is that since December 2019, she has been called upon to become the Dean of the Institute at ACS Athens, a premiere school empowering individuals to transform the world as architects of their own learning. In this role, Carla has been given the opportunity to identify the gaps at international schools and create new resources in the realm of K-12 education to build bridges, increase transfer of knowledge and integrate global perspective.
We asked Carla to leave us with some final words to ponder, here is what she shared:
“If what we eat is our vote for the food chain system we want, then it really is up to us to change the food system. “Revolutionising the World’s Menu” can only be achieved when all countries come together to make this change.”
Thank you Carla, you sure are an inspiration to all in the global FAC community!
Name: Carla Tanas
Country: Greece
Organisation: Co-founder and CEO Future Agro Challenge
Website: https://facagro.com/
Social Media Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-tanas-79396b/
https://twitter.com/TanasCarla
https://www.facebook.com/FutureAgroChallenge