The rapid growth of insect farming for protein and feed involves billions of animals whose capacity for suffering is uncertain, requiring precautionary welfare approaches that improve conditions without assuming definitive sentience.
Insect farming welfare sits at the frontier of welfare science. The precautionary principle - that we should extend moral consideration proportional to the plausibility of sentience - argues for welfare attention even without certainty. The scale argument is decisive: if even 1% of farmed insects have rudimentary pain-like experiences, the 1+ trillion individuals farmed represent a welfare concern larger than any other category of animal use. Practical precautionary measures include avoiding extreme temperature stressors, providing appropriate density and substrate conditions, and developing rapid killing methods. The insect welfare research community is growing; consumer and regulatory pressure for evidence-based insect welfare standards is emerging.