Insect exploitation: A massive ethical problem

When we think about animal exploitation, we usually picture cows, pigs, or chickens. But there’s a massive issue that often goes unnoticed: the exploitation of insects. Every year, humans kill trillions of insects for food, dyes, silk, and other products. That’s not a typo – we’re talking about trillions, not billions. And if we allow the trend to continue, it will soon be quadrillions, then quintillions.

But why should we care about insects? Don’t they have tiny brains? Are they even sentient? Well, science is showing us that insects are more complex than we thought. They can learn, make decisions, and adapt to new situations.These characteristics don’t make someone more valuable morally, but they are indicators of sentience. Insects have brains with hundreds of thousands to a million neurons, and their neural networks are similar in many ways to those found in primates. This is evidence that they are sentient, and they may suffer a great deal from what we do to them.

Here’s what happens to insects in farming:

— They’re kept in extremely cramped spaces

— They’re starved for 12-24 hours before being killed

— They’re killed through freezing, boiling water, microwaving, or grinding

The numbers are staggering:

— Between 4.6 and 21 trillion cochineals are killed yearly for red dye production

— Between 2 and 3.2 trillion insects are killed for human food and animal feed

— Between 420 billion and 1 trillion silkworms die annually in silk production

— At any given time, 1.4 to 4.8 trillion bees are kept for honey production

Some people argue that insects don’t suffer as much as larger animals, so it doesn’t matter as much. But this argument has serious problems. First, even if insects didn’t suffer quite as much as humans or other animals, they still suffer and lose their lives. Second, simpler brains don’t necessarily mean less suffering. In fact, some scientists suggest that insects might feel pain very intensely because their survival depends heavily on avoiding harmful situations.

Others say that insects’ deaths matter less because they don’t have intellectual pleasures like humans do. But this ignores all the basic experiences that make life valuable to humans and other animals. Just because insects are not capable of, for example, experiencing the pleasure of playing chess or reading a book, it does not mean that they will not be harmed if they are prevented from enjoying other positive experiences that they would otherwise have.

In addition to the harm to each individual, another factor that makes this issue a very important ethical problem is its huge scale and rapid expansion. Even if you believe each individual insect matters less than a larger animal, the massive numbers involved make this one of the biggest ethical issues in the world.

The bottom line is this: insects are sentient beings capable of suffering. We’re causing harm to trillions of them every year, and this number is increasing. Their small size doesn’t make their suffering any less real, and the massive scale of their exploitation makes this a central ethical issue we can’t ignore. Just as we oppose the exploitation of other animals, we should oppose the exploitation of insects and work to end these harmful practices.

Here are some concrete steps you can take to help:

1. Avoid insect-based foods and products, including:

• “Cricket flour” and other insect-based proteins
• Silk clothing and accessories
• Honey and other bee products

2. Spread awareness

• Share information about insect sentience and exploitation with friends and family
• Support organizations working to protect insects
• Speak up when you see companies promoting insect farming as “sustainable” or “ethical.” The fact that a practice is sustainable does not mean that it has harmed animals less.

Remember: Our actions make a difference, and so does adding our voices to opposing all discrimination against other sentient beings. If you are pressed for time, it can be as simple as sharing our posts on social media.

Together, we can help prevent the suffering of trillions of sentient beings and we can prevent its spread now. The problem will be much harder when the industry grows larger around the world.

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