As insect farming scales rapidly for protein production, questions about whether insects can suffer and how to minimise harm are increasingly urgent.
The welfare status of farmed insects sits at one of the most uncertain frontiers of animal welfare science. The evidence for insect sentience is substantially less clear than for vertebrates, but it is not negligible — insects demonstrate avoidance learning, have nociceptors, and respond physiologically to noxious stimuli. Given the enormous scale of insect farming — potentially trillions of individuals annually if the sector grows as projected — even a small probability of morally relevant suffering creates a potentially enormous welfare stake. The precautionary principle suggests that insect farming practices should be designed to minimise potential suffering even while the science remains uncertain. Research into insect welfare is underfunded relative to the potential stakes, and this represents an important gap in the animal welfare science landscape.