To the Editor:Re “$3 Billion Later, Where’s the (Planet-Saving, Lab-Grown) Beef?,” by Joe Fassler (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 11):In his extensively reported piece, Mr. Fassler pulls back the curtain on cultivated meat. The hard sell for lab-grown meat has always sounded more like Theranos-style spin than feasible innovation, and Mr. Fassler’s reporting certainly gives that impression. The industrial meat industry takes a terrible toll on the planet and animal welfare, and cultivated meat enthusiasts have long argued the only alternative is to provide consumers with facsimiles of the real stuff. In the essay, one alt-meat die-hard compared the solution to this dilemma to two hypothetical runners, one, representing cultivated meat. These solutions need the boosterism — and the billions of dollars — cultivated meat has benefited from.

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Persons: Joe Fassler, Fassler