The insect farming industry is growing rapidly to produce protein for human consumption and animal feed, creating new and largely unresolved animal welfare questions.
Insect farming welfare sits at the frontier of welfare science and policy. The scale of insect farming — with individual operations housing billions of animals — means that even small probabilities of sentience represent enormous moral stakes. Current evidence on insect pain capacity is genuinely uncertain, but multiple reviews have concluded the question cannot be dismissed. Regulatory frameworks for farmed insect welfare are nearly nonexistent. The precautionary principle argues for developing welfare standards now, before the industry scales further, focusing on humane killing methods, thermal environment management, and density limits.