“Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly? A Review of Insect Cognition and Sentience in Relation to their Use as Food and Feed”

In this review, Lambert, Elwin, and D’Cruze explore a fraction of what is currently known about insect sentience and cognition by focusing on a portion of the published scientific literature over the past 31 years. The review aimed to: (1) broadly assess the extent to which insect sentience and cognition feature in a selection of the scientific literature published between 1990 and 2020 (31 year period), (2) to specifically assess which aspects have been studied and in which insect taxa, and (3) review reports published by the FAO between 2013 and 2020, to identify the insect species currently being promoted in policy for farming, and the reasons why edible insects are now on the global policy agenda. Their exploration comes at a point when the commercial production of insects appears likely to intensify, and the market for this taxonomic group as a food source is reaching a global scale. They hope that the findings will have important implications for how insects are farmed in the future, particularly in the context of reducing any potential negative animal welfare impacts.