The insect protein sector is growing rapidly as a sustainable food and feed source. As scale increases to billions of insects, welfare questions become increasingly important even under uncertainty about insect sentience.
The insect welfare question is genuinely open: evidence for nociception and stress responses exists but the question of whether insects have subjective experience remains unresolved. Given the enormous scale of insect farming, even low probability of meaningful sentience implies potentially large amounts of suffering. Applying the precautionary principle by investing in welfare research and developing better slaughter methods costs relatively little but could prevent significant suffering if insect sentience is eventually confirmed.