The emerging insect farming industry raises novel welfare questions about the sentience and potential suffering of billions of farmed insects in commercial production systems.
Insect farming welfare sits at the frontier of welfare science, where the evidence base is limited but the scale of potential suffering is enormous. If insects are sentient — capable of experiencing something like pain or distress — then the billions of insects farmed annually represent a welfare concern of massive scale. The evidence for insect sentience is weaker than for vertebrates but not absent: some insects show nociception, avoidance learning, and responses to injury that suggest more than simple reflex. The precautionary principle suggests that farming practices should minimise potential suffering even in the absence of certainty about insect pain experience.