Insect farming for food and feed is growing rapidly. The welfare of farmed insects is scientifically uncertain but increasingly taken seriously as the industry scales to billions of individuals.
Insect welfare at industrial scale represents one of the most numerically significant welfare decisions in food system history. If insects have any capacity for negative experience, the welfare implications of farming trillions of them under industrial conditions are enormous. Scientific certainty is low but the precautionary principle applies: treating the question as open is more defensible than dismissing it. Freezing may cause less distress than grinding. Heat processing methods vary in speed. The Insect Welfare Research Society is developing evidence-based welfare standards. Consumer demand for insects as a sustainable protein source should include welfare scrutiny.