Insect farming produces billions of insects annually for feed and food - the welfare implications at this scale are significant even if individual insect sentience remains uncertain.
Insect farming welfare requires grappling with scale and uncertainty simultaneously. If insects have any capacity for suffering - even at a very low probability - the trillion-scale of insect farming represents enormous aggregate welfare relevance. Welfare-conscious insect farming research focuses on optimal rearing conditions that align welfare with production efficiency, and on killing methods that minimise potential suffering. The uncertainty about insect sentience does not eliminate welfare responsibility - the precautionary principle suggests implementing welfare improvements where feasible given the enormous scale. This is an area where a small probability of sentience multiplied by enormous numbers creates non-trivial moral weight.