Industrial farmed insect production at trillions of individuals annually raises welfare questions that require serious engagement given the scale, even under scientific uncertainty about insect sentience.
Industrial insect farming welfare is a moral mathematics challenge: even a small probability of morally significant experience, multiplied by trillions of individuals, produces large expected welfare costs. This is not an argument for banning insect farming — which provides more sustainable protein than conventional livestock with far lower greenhouse gas emissions — but for serious welfare engagement despite uncertainty. Developing more humane slaughter methods, investigating whether stocking density affects insect welfare indicators, and supporting sentience research are reasonable precautionary measures that are not expensive relative to the scale of production. The insect farming industry would benefit from proactive welfare engagement rather than assuming welfare is irrelevant.