Enjoyed this but upon reflection seems odd that they would have a word "meat" and yet be unfamiliar with biological systems / consciousness in animals.
That's what seems odd? It's no more odd than aliens speaking English in the first place.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the language here is not only used to transmit the ideas in the story, but convey feeling. With the use of "meat" as a pejorative, you're supposed to understand the feeling of contempt and almost repulsion that these beings have towards us.
Another great interpretation of the story would be via speciesism/anthropocentrism, we consider ourselves better than other animals, but for the aliens, we would all be "meat".
