You are assuming this - not proving this - and that is okay - it is a mysterious topic. I disagree though. And we need to remember that no human can prove that they are conscious. If no one is conscious, then no one is really in any but a mechanical sense, and that means that it should not matter if we kill or harm others - nothing lost, since they are just "meat", as you say.

So your argument has the inevitable conclusion that humans have no value above brainless plants.