Insect farming operates at scales incomprehensible compared to vertebrate farming. Even small probabilities of insect sentience create enormous welfare stakes requiring precautionary attention.
The scale of insect farming creates a unique ethical situation where uncertainty about sentience intersects with numbers that dwarf all other animal farming. If there is even a small probability that black soldier fly larvae or mealworms experience something, the expected welfare impact of a trillion poorly managed individuals is enormous. This is not an argument for treating insect welfare identically to vertebrate welfare, but it is a strong argument for proportionate investment in research and precautionary welfare standards. The relatively low cost of improving insect welfare — optimizing temperature, density, and slaughter method — compared to the potential expected benefit makes this one of the highest expected value welfare interventions available. Supporting insect welfare research and the development of precautionary standards represents forward-looking welfare advocacy for the dominant animal farming sector of the near future.