Let's face it: agriculture and livestock are extremely inefficient.

Agriculture and livestock are like the stagecoach and towing barge: inefficient and obsolete.

Take the cow. How to make a kilo of steak? Of course, it starts with sunlight. Through photosynthesis, 1 to 2 percent of the solar energy is converted by plants, of which only part is edible. To grow these plants (for example: soya), we cut miles of rainforest to feed the yield to the cow, which is completely inefficient. After all, cows tend to walk around in the meadow, and yes: that costs energy. As a result, you need as much as 25 kilograms of food for one kilogram of steak.

Suppose we convert that energy into food via a different, more efficient (in other words: more sustainable) route than plants or animals. Could that be possible? The answer is: yes. That is possible with fermentation. In other words: with fungi and bacteria.

Adnan Onder. He is a physicist, technician, entrepreneur and founder of Farmless — one of the many Dutch start-ups that are revolutionizing our food system.

Listen to his story here at The Correspondent