A wild ride

It's said that smooth roads never make good drivers. If that's the case, the rough and rutted path that alt-meat companies have had to travel in recent months should be valuable experience for the future.

For now, though, investment in the space has been significantly dampened, and that's a speed bump for all the growing companies — not just those companies, like Beyond Meat and Very Good Food, that have been garnering bleak headlines.…