With the publication of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2013 report, Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security, the production of insects for animal feed and human consumption has witnessed a meteoric rise. Today, facilities capable of producing insects in the trillions are being constructed in many parts of the world, with enthusiasts hailing insect-based agriculture as a means to combat climate change, global food shortages, and the proliferation of food waste, among other concerns. As this Article argues, however, the industrial production of insects for food threatens to exacerbate rather than mitigate these crises, as well as contribute to the systemic cruelties inflicted upon traditionally farmed animals. In documenting the harms externalized by industrial animal agriculture and how the mass-scale production of insects would compound them, this Article calls for the rejection of insect-based agriculture.
