House cricket farming is growing rapidly as an alternative protein source, with emerging welfare questions about cricket capacity for suffering.
Cricket welfare sits at the frontier of welfare science - the probability of sentience is genuinely uncertain, but the scale of production means even small individual welfare concerns multiply enormously. The precautionary principle supports investing in humane killing methods, appropriate environmental conditions, and continued research into cricket pain and stress. Welfare improvements often also improve production efficiency, providing economic incentive alongside welfare motivation.