The potential sentience of insects and crustaceans has moved from fringe concern to mainstream scientific debate. As insect farming scales up for food and feed, the welfare questions become increasingly urgent.
The precautionary principle applied to insect and crustacean sentience supports attention to welfare conditions even under uncertainty. For crustaceans, evidence for pain experience is stronger, and boiling live lobsters or crabs has been banned in several jurisdictions. For insects, the scale of potential suffering if they are sentient justifies investment in research and precautionary welfare standards. The stakes are high given the explosive growth of insect agriculture.