370 billion crickets farmed every year may actually feel pain, shocking new study suggests

The insect farming industry has taken off due to the global need for sustainable protein, resulting in about 370 billion crickets being raised every year. But there's a new twist. A study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B questions the old belief that crickets are just simple creatures reacting to stimuli like robots.

370 billion crickets farmed every year may actually feel pain, shocking new study suggests. The insect farming industry has taken off due to the global need for sustainable protein, resulting in about 370 billion crickets being raised every year. But there's a new twist. A study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B questions the old belief that crickets are just simple creatures reacting to stimuli like robots. Scientists noticed something interesting: crickets seem to care for themselves by grooming only injured limbs and ignoring those that are fine. This suggests they might feel pain in a more complex way than we thought before. As a result, there’s now a conversation about whether these insects have some form of consciousness, which leads us to consider how ethical it is to continue an industry without proper legal guidel...