Insect farming is expanding rapidly as a sustainable protein source, raising emerging welfare questions about the scale of insect production and the sentience of farmed species.
The welfare status of farmed insects is scientifically uncertain, with debate about their capacity for subjective experience and pain. Black soldier fly larvae show avoidance responses to noxious stimuli, and mealworms demonstrate stress responses to temperature extremes. If insects have some form of sentience, the scale of insect farming involving billions of individuals would represent an enormous welfare consideration. Killing methods that cause the most rapid insensibility should be preferred on precautionary grounds. The uncertainty around insect sentience warrants ongoing serious scientific attention rather than dismissal.