There are some reasons to think that insects would not be especially harmed by factory farming, in the way that vertebrates are. It is plausible that the largest source of suffering in factory farms come from the stress produced by lack of enrichment and unnatural and overcrowded conditions. Even if crickets are phenomenally conscious AND can suffer, they might not be capable of stress or capable of stress in the same sort of dull over-crowded conditions as vertebrates. Given their ancient divergence in brain structures, their very different life styles, and their comparatively minuscule brains, it is reasonable to be skeptical that they feel environment induced stress. Death is conceivably such a short portion of their life that even a relatively painful death won’t tip the balance.
If crickets are not harmed by the conditions of factory farms, they might instead benefit from factory farming. It seems possible that the average factory farmed cricket might have a net positive balance of good experiences vs bad experiences. In that case, it might be better to raise crickets in factory farm conditions than to produce equivalent amounts of non-sentient meat alternatives. The risks are not entirely on the farming side.
It’s true that their minds are more divergent from ours, but I think that tends to mean there is more uncertainty about what they feel stress in response to, not that they feel less environmentally induced stress. Also, as I say in the post, the uncertainty makes it harder to improve their welfare.
I probably should have paid more attention to arguments about how they could have net positive welfare to have a more balanced post. Though I have seen a real bias in favour of eating insects (at least outside the EA community), and so I still see this post as contributing to a more balanced discussion of the issue. And for the reasons I given the post I still view it is unlikely that they have net positive welfare.
Nice summary of the issues.
A couple of related thoughts:
There are some reasons to think that insects would not be especially harmed by factory farming, in the way that vertebrates are. It is plausible that the largest source of suffering in factory farms come from the stress produced by lack of enrichment and unnatural and overcrowded conditions. Even if crickets are phenomenally conscious AND can suffer, they might not be capable of stress or capable of stress in the same sort of dull over-crowded conditions as vertebrates. Given their ancient divergence in brain structures, their very different life styles, and their comparatively minuscule brains, it is reasonable to be skeptical that they feel environment induced stress. Death is conceivably such a short portion of their life that even a relatively painful death won’t tip the balance.
If crickets are not harmed by the conditions of factory farms, they might instead benefit from factory farming. It seems possible that the average factory farmed cricket might have a net positive balance of good experiences vs bad experiences. In that case, it might be better to raise crickets in factory farm conditions than to produce equivalent amounts of non-sentient meat alternatives. The risks are not entirely on the farming side.
It’s true that their minds are more divergent from ours, but I think that tends to mean there is more uncertainty about what they feel stress in response to, not that they feel less environmentally induced stress. Also, as I say in the post, the uncertainty makes it harder to improve their welfare.
I probably should have paid more attention to arguments about how they could have net positive welfare to have a more balanced post. Though I have seen a real bias in favour of eating insects (at least outside the EA community), and so I still see this post as contributing to a more balanced discussion of the issue. And for the reasons I given the post I still view it is unlikely that they have net positive welfare.