Emerging Animal Welfare

Farmed Insect Welfare: Preparing for Scale

Insect farming is growing rapidly as a sustainable protein source, and establishing welfare standards before the industry scales is crucial.

Key Facts

Global insect production could grow 40-fold by 2050 under optimistic projections
Black soldier fly larvae are farmed in billions for animal feed and fertilizer
Research on insect sentience remains limited but nociception is documented in some species
Stocking densities in insect farms are many orders of magnitude higher than vertebrate farms
The EU has approved four insect species as novel food ingredients

Welfare Considerations

The precautionary case for insect welfare standards is strong: if there is meaningful probability of insect sentience, then farming them at trillion-scale without any welfare consideration is a significant moral risk. Establishing welfare standards now while the industry is small is far easier than retrofitting after massive scale-up. Research into insect sentience should be prioritized to enable evidence-based standards.

What You Can Do

Support research into insect sentience and welfare
Advocate for precautionary welfare standards in insect farming regulation
Engage with novel food policy consultations on insect welfare provisions
Consider uncertainty around insect welfare when making dietary choices