As insect farming grows rapidly as a sustainable protein source, questions about insect sentience and welfare are becoming increasingly important for ethical food systems.
Insect welfare sits at the frontier of animal ethics. If insects are sentient — even to a modest degree — the scale of insect farming makes it a welfare issue of enormous magnitude. The precautionary principle suggests that insect farming operations should aim to minimise potential suffering even amid scientific uncertainty. Crowding billions of animals in barren conditions, then killing them by methods that may be painful, deserves serious ethical scrutiny. As insect farming is presented as an environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional meat, it is important that this sustainability extends to animal welfare considerations.