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.
Open Philanthropy’s farm animal welfare team estimates 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 Open Philanthropy’s focus area of farm animal welfare.