Research into the capacity of farmed insects for pain and suffering is critical given the billions used in farming, with current evidence suggesting precautionary welfare measures are justified.
Insect sentience research is at the frontier of moral consideration, and the stakes are enormous: if insects have any meaningful capacity for suffering, the billions farmed globally represent a welfare concern of unprecedented scale. The precautionary principle — acting to reduce potential suffering even in the absence of certainty — is the most defensible approach given the scale of use and the uncertainty of evidence. Welfare researchers at Rethink Priorities and elsewhere are developing both the science of insect sentience assessment and practical welfare recommendations for insect farming. This field will shape the ethics of a rapidly growing industry for decades.