Insect farming for food and animal feed is growing rapidly, and welfare standards for farmed insects are being developed in advance of clear scientific consensus on insect sentience, applying a precautionary approach.
Farmed insect welfare operates under significant scientific uncertainty about insect sentience and pain perception. The precautionary approach adopted by emerging welfare frameworks applies reasonable welfare consideration proportional to the probability and severity of suffering. Where insects are farmed in very large numbers - billions per batch in some operations - even small probabilities of significant suffering represent large aggregate welfare impacts. Welfare-conscious insect farming focuses on providing species-appropriate temperature, humidity, and substrate conditions, and developing killing methods that minimise the possibility of distress, with gas stunning using CO2 or refrigeration being preferred over heat or grinding methods.