( CNN ) -- On Monday , three lucky diners nibbled a $ 325,000 burger -- not in the name of luxury but in the name of science , animal rights and sustainability . The meat was grown in a lab . This in-vitro hamburger is `` cultured '' in many different ways : It 's the product of human ingenuity , it 's considerate of humans , animals and the planet , and it 's produced through growing cells . Tasters declared the hamburger a little dry , and you wo n't be able to buy one any time soon . But that 's not the point : It 's a proof of concept prototype -- evidence that it is physically possible to produce meat through cell culture . It 's a step toward a day when meat can be produced in a cost-effective , time-efficient and completely animal-free manner . By collecting cells from healthy animals and culturing them in a sterile environment , we can grow animal muscle and bypass slaughter and inhumane treatment . We can establish a safer food supply by avoiding conditions that promote the spread of disease . And we can take a major step toward improving our impact on the environment , including a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . But perhaps the most radical aspect of cultured meat is that its development has been nearly entirely philanthropic , funded largely by individual donors and foundations . The funding behind the creation of this cultured hamburger did not come from a private company or a government but from the forward-thinking co-founder of Google , Sergey Brin . He donated dollars to seek a novel and transformative solution to the world 's meat problem . This hamburger was developed by Mark Post , a Dutch researcher at the University of Maastricht . The nonprofit organization New Harvest also has been instrumental in advancing cultured meat . By funding scientific research directly , using donations from individuals and advising both the Dutch government and Brin 's foundation to support cultured meat research , New Harvest has been a key player in keeping development of this new technology cooperative and a concerted worldwide effort . All of this research remains in the public domain . The implications of it being available to all are very promising . At first glance , cultured meat might seem to be a homogenizing of our food choices . But beer is a biotech product with many tastes and types . How it is produced is public information . And that makes the business of beer vastly different from the business of , say , transgenic crops . The production of beer requires living organisms -- yeast -- and nourishment for those organisms -- grain . How these elements come together with others to make beer is straightforward in theory , and nuanced in practice . The products are varied and distinct . Cultured meat production is extremely similar . Explained simply , all that is required is a cell line and nourishment for those cells . How the cells are grown , and under what conditions , are adjustable . The potential variety of materials and processes will allow cultured meat to take on many distinctly unique forms , flavors and textures . Any intellectual property protection in beer production is negligible . Nothing holds back the home brewer or the craft brewer from creating one-of-a-kind offerings . Perhaps it is the lack of clear intellectual property protection opportunities for cultured meat that has kept Big Food companies at arm 's length to date . To extend the analogy further , consider the visuals of brewing : stainless steel bioreactors containing living organisms and biological reactions , and controlled aseptic environments . Not only do we tour these facilities as a casual weekend activity , we are also pleased to eat or drink in their presence at a microbrewery or brew pub . Imagine that within those stainless steel walls , meat was brewing . Contrast this with the facilities that produce meat today , and you can appreciate just how much cultured meat is a concept that can shake up current systems . As Einstein said , we ca n't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them . It 's a new way of thinking because this is food science by the public , for the public . It prompts a widespread conversation about a food technology years in advance of its market release rather than years afterward . It 's a new way of thinking because it 's a technology largely driven by societal demand and people have pushed this forward , as donors to a cause . The biggest reasons why cultured meat has n't progressed further is a lack of funding and a lack of creative understanding . We 're not used to food technology being a positive solution . We 're not used to food development being nonprofit . And we 're not used to a nonprofit group generally categorized as an animal rights/environmentalist group requiring a cancer research-scale budget . But we 're learning . Some people might think the meat has a `` yuck '' factor . We should all get over it . We 've embraced all kinds of technologies that first seemed like science fiction -- think in-vitro fertilization and Google Glass . The yuck factor associated with modern-day factory farming is undeniable . And meat seems to be recalled for bacterial contamination every other month , and we still buy it . It makes no sense . In many ways the hamburger as we know it is a symbol of the meat problem : the globalization of food , overconsumption , illogical food pricing and fast-food culture . The cultured hamburger symbolizes something else : our opportunity to take back food technology . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Isha Datar .
A hamburger that cost $ 325,000 to create in a lab was served this week . Isha Datar : It 's not ready for market but proves we can make meat through cell culture . Datar : Cultured meat is good for the environment , safe , and it eliminates animal slaughter . Datar : It 's not funded by companies or government but by individuals and foundations .