Insect Farming: Adding Up To Global Suffering?
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Faunalytics.org
February 2021

Considered an alternative source of animal protein, insects are increasingly farmed worldwide. In this paper, the author investigates the levels of welfare of farmed insects.

Deep fried Crickets

Insect farming has recently gained attention in areas of the world that are not usually engaged in this farming practice. Today, more than 1 trillion insects are farmed for food worldwide. Where they exist, current laws and regulations concerning insect welfare seem to lack the knowledge required to grant sufficient levels of welfare to the farmed insects.

In this article, the author investigates the world of insect farming, paying particular attention to welfare challenges. The author’s research stems from the assumption that insects are sentient “in a morally relevant way” and, consequently, their suffering matters. The author also highlights that the scale of this practice will end up adding billions of deaths to the already impressive numbers of sentient beings slaughtered for food.

The resources used to make the estimates for this article are surveys, datasets and direct conversations with insect farmers and farm workers both in Europe and the United States. The research only includes estimates about insects eaten full or powdered for human or animal consumption.

Today most insects are farmed as a replacement for animal feed, particularly chicken and fish feed. Another use for insects is to become human food. While insects are part of the local diet in Asia, Latin America and Africa, U.S. and Europe consumers are not yet well acquainted with the idea of eating insects....

Please read more at: Insect Farming: Adding Up To Global Suffering?

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