If the meatless option is 29% cheaper, the meat option is .29/(1-.29) = 41% more expensive, not 29%. Meatballs in the article are .41/(1-.41) = 69% more expensive than plantballs, which is close to your target number.

I remember the days when a veggie cheeseburger was a grilled cheese sandwich. Progress.

Same with alcohol-free beer and other drinks. Somehow they always cost considerably more than regular ones.

Don't forget the cross subsidies from co-products.

If ground beef (aka beef mince in the UK where this story is running) is the cheapest trimmings that remain after all of the expensive cuts have been processed, it's entirely possible that the low price for this byproduct is partially subsidized by the high prices for the premium product (expensive steaks, moderate expense whole cuts). Plus things like hides for leather.

For now, the plant-based competition is aiming at the types of meat that are easier to mimic or replace with plant-based foods. And unfortunately, those happen to be the cheaper types of meat. If we get to the point where there is significant plant-based competition to filet mignon, that product will have a lot more room to work with in being price competitive.

Pricing inputs get complicated, and government subsidies are only a piece of the picture.

meat and dairy subsidies

That has been proven to be incorrect: https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/meat-subsidies

Removing the subsidies would rise the prices by cents.

Raw food - any food - is dirt cheap. Most of the costs is the chain of logistics (and that every middleman takes their cut).