Insect farming is growing rapidly as a sustainable protein source. Whether farmed insects experience suffering and how to improve their welfare is an emerging and important ethical question.
Farmed insect welfare science is at an early stage, with genuine scientific uncertainty about whether insects experience suffering in a morally relevant sense. Their nervous systems are simpler than vertebrates but contain nociceptors and show avoidance responses to harmful stimuli. The precautionary principle, applied to insects, suggests that minimizing potential suffering through better farming conditions and humane killing methods is appropriate given uncertainty. Given the scale of insect farming — billions of individuals per facility — even small probabilities of sentience translate to enormous welfare stakes. Freezing appears to be among the more humane killing methods, causing progressive slowing of metabolic function. Overcrowding in insect farms may cause stress responses that are welfare-relevant if insects are sentient.