Insect farming is expanding rapidly as a sustainable protein source. The welfare of farmed insects is scientifically uncertain but ethically significant given the enormous numbers involved.
Insect farming welfare presents a genuine ethical challenge: enormous numbers of potentially sentient animals in conditions entirely designed around human utility, with a science of insect consciousness too immature to resolve the key question. The precautionary principle suggests that given uncertainty, we should not dismiss welfare considerations entirely when the cost of being wrong is suffering at extraordinary scale. The Rethink Priorities research group has produced the most comprehensive welfare uncertainty analysis for insects, concluding that cricket welfare warrants more concern than many assume. At minimum, investment in welfare research and development of humane killing methods is justified by the numbers involved.