Insect farming for food and feed is growing rapidly, with the welfare of billions of farmed insects presenting enormous uncertainty given limited knowledge of insect sentience and pain capacity.
Insect farming presents one of the most difficult welfare questions in food systems. If insects are sentient, the scale of production represents an almost incomprehensible welfare problem. If they are not, they can be farmed intensively with no welfare concern. Current scientific knowledge cannot resolve this question with confidence. The precautionary principle combined with enormous production scale suggests that research into insect welfare science should be urgently prioritized, and that farming practices minimizing potential suffering should be preferred.