Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $468,004 over two years to Rethink Priorities to support a research project on farmed insect welfare and insect sentience. These funds will assist a team of academic entomological collaborators in publishing papers about insect sentience and the welfare of commonly farmed insect species, as well as help build a network of researchers focused on insect welfare.
We estimate that there are 1-2 trillion insects farmed for food annually, and there is currently little research on farmed insect welfare or on insect sentience.
This falls within our focus area of farm animal welfare.