The rapidly expanding edible insect industry raises novel welfare questions about whether insects experience pain and distress, with growing scientific attention to insect sentience and farming practice standards.
The welfare significance of insect farming depends critically on unresolved questions about insect sentience. Even under uncertainty, the precautionary principle suggests minimising potential suffering at the enormous scale of insect production — billions of individuals per facility. Optimising killing methods to be rapid and potentially less aversive than alternatives, reducing crowding stress, and providing species-appropriate environmental conditions represent welfare improvements that are achievable regardless of the sentience question. Growing regulatory attention in the EU is beginning to address insect welfare standards.