Resource 29•04•2021 PAGE 20 I don’t muchCO produce littlelandandwater use and products, to grow waste They eat ly fast. little food relative are nutritious andneed Sustainable MarcelDicke.entomologist by programmeheaded in theInsectfeed vanwith PhDcandidate Martijn Loon farmingtogether ethical sideofinsect be investigating she will the fulfilled: NowAnimal Ethics. herwishnow being of professor Bovenkerk isanassociate Bovenkerk’s foryears. wishlist research onBernice butithasbeen thought about It isatopic you may ever not have animals are ? Unacceptable? Whatifwe tell you the Distressing? theyare food. ly because distinction between a On themoral Insects mini- as FEATURE

old orleave pure thebarn.Theyexist Theywillnever aregrow sick. Some intightly.with theanimalspacked t isdarkandsweltering inthebarn, specialistBerniceBovenkerk considers. what doesthatmeanfor farming? These aresomeofthequestions Do insects have consciousness?Dothey feel pain?Canthey think?And cow acricket and 2 . Yet are insects - - not necessarily theholy grailinthepro necessarily not insects, andyou ableto encour mightbe insects, : at chickensliketo peck increase canalso sustainable. Insects to it isbetter makeitmoresumption, don’tif people con reduce theirmeat welfare andtheenvironment. However, up. foranimal scaled good Butthatisnot able image, whichinturnallows itto be gives livestockfarmingamore sustain that ethicaldilemmas.Because esting inter produces ‘That up inanimalfeed. to mainly end insects Bovenkerk expects meat.’not for sweetcorn,That isasasubstitute inthecinema. rather thanpopcorn deep-fried example eat usually for eaten assnacks. Bolivians do have onthemenu, theyare insects that animalprotein.other Incountries whethertheywill everdoubts replace tein transition,says ‘Ihave Bovenkerk. - - - - - and different’and they are sosmall feel because pain imagine that insects ‘We find ithard to aren’t suchaspulses?Insects sources you compare themwithplantprotein cows,against chickensorpigs? Ordo youpare themwith.Do weigh themup onwhatyou ‘Itdepends com insects. of to benefits determine theprecise itisdifficultAccording to Bovenkerk, animals insects.’ intensive less age farmingby feeding Text Tessa Louwerens

- Resource 29•04•2021 PAGE 21 - < - - - riencing pain. Like most insects, fruit for exam a spinal cord, have don’t that cord a ventral but they do have ple, runs across the abdomen and fulfils the same function If as a spinal cord. they get close something to hot, they reaction a painful to Bovenkerk: ‘A away. stimulus necessarily doesn’t mean the animal consciously feels pain; it could be damage as a reflex. Pain prevents the painful it makes the animal avoid stimuli. learn But the animal has to and remember this. Most short insects have lifecycles so the trade-off – the energy maintain all thoserequired to extra worth it from structures isn’t – probably an evolutionary perspective.’ against drawing Bovenkerk warns Yet conclusions too soon. A simple nervous mal consciously experiences pain and much about know don’t We pleasure. that for insects. But absence of evidence is not the same of absence. as evidence to imagine insects find it hard feel We pain because so are they small and differ used fish, think that of ent. But we to they do feel know pain we whereas now and our treatment of them is horrific.’ Most animal ethicists are assume you sent of pain when signals are aware only pain receptors the brain via to and the ‘That Bovenkerk: spinal cord. is why such as they assume that invertebrates insects consciously feel pain and don’t need a moral status.’ don’t therefore of expe be other ways may But there get that moral status? Bovenkerk: ‘An Bovenkerk: ‘An get moral status? that important question the ani is whether - the vegetarian section a few years ago. the vegetarian section ago. a few years assume animals too!They are Can you eat willing to them?’ vegetarians are Perhaps people think: ‘What difference does insects. only it make? They’re We we?’ don’t mosquitoesswat mercilessly, As a specialist in animal ethics, Boven kerk sees things differently. ‘Ethics is kerk sees things differently. about when our acts as humans are should we Animal ethicists say “right”. assign a moral status certain to animals and take account of their interests in treat them.’ we how decide which animals do you But how Animal ethicist Bernice Bovenkerk: ‘If you rear animals in production systems, you turn them systems, you rear animals in production ‘If you Bernice Bovenkerk: Animal ethicist problematic, interests. That is morally than their own us rather to serve that exist into objects Duncan de Fey Photo pig or .’ it's a cow, regardless of whether Aside these from practical aspects, ethical it is to how Bovenkerk wonders and kill insects on a large scale. ‘I surprisedwas find insect to burgers in Moral status Moral necessarily an improvement on pulses.necessarily an improvement keep to the insects and warm have You You feed them, which costs energy. that energy in growing could also invest plant food is also for people. There a risk that insects escape and become a plague and that damages the environment biodiversity.’ Resource 29•04•2021 PAGE 23 - - ■ farming for these mini-cattle. Insect ­farming is in its infancy and that offers that make the secscope for innovations ‘Let’s study their study ‘Let’s properly consciousness introduce we before for farming factory mini-cattle’ these we sustainable and ethical. Now more tor an opportunity get to it right from have the mistakes of inten the start and avoid of animal welfare farming in terms sive to hard becauseand the environment, it’s undo the damage afterwards.’ - - erk. ‘Let’s tryerk. their consciousness study to ‘Let’s introduceproperly before factory we er than having interests of their own. interests of their own. er than having regardless problematic, That is morally pig or of whether the object is a cow, mealworm.’ Perhaps the image sketched at the start of distressing remotely for this article isn’t insects because at close they live quarters But insects too. deservein nature at least the benefit of the doubt, believes Bovenk sibly including insects, have goals and goals and insects, including sibly have desires, consciously or otherwise. ‘They expectations for have don’t probably that know don’t although we the future, to want for certain. But they definitely just Animals have eat, and survive. mate life as us. Mostas much right to of the insects That deprives eat larvae. are we them of the opportunity become to their full potential. to adults and live animals in large rear production If you also are them turning systems, you objectsinto that exist serve to us rath Photo Duncan de Fey Photo - Even if insectsEven feel nothing and we can farm them without affecting their Bovenkerk still sees welfare, other know we objections. example, ‘For that certain insects such as can be very despite intelligent their small A that is allowed brains.’ chooseto between green and blue go for the blue ones will always flowers researchersafter repeatedly train it by placing a sugar solution in the blue It has alsopossible flowers. proved to teach bees to use do sums to rewards and recognize faces. ‘Perhaps insects we experience life the same way don’t Bovenkerk. does ‘How says it feel to do,’ be idea. enough a ? That is hard No imagine with anotherto human. But researcherslook can for similarities, for know example in brain structures. We cortex in humans that the prefrontal is used in learning, setting goals and fish and insectsplanning. Birds, have similar brain structures that could serve the same functions.’ Bovenkerk, to According animals, pos Mini-cattle system doesn’t mean the animal is meanthe animal is system doesn’t Research other that shows ‘simple’. pain behaviour exhibit invertebrates than just a reflex.that is more A hermit shell that it a favourite have crab may chooses other If to shells. in preference an electric pulsethe crab is given every time it tries get its to into favourite shell, it makes an inferior shell. do with Sonervous a central does system not seem be to feeling a precondition for pain. Bovenkerk: ‘The question is whether this also applies insects. to collection a diverse are of Invertebrates about are creatures and there a million species just of insects, can’t which you Male praying lump together. carry being on mating while they are feel they Don’t the female.’ eaten by Bovenkerk. ‘A says that? It is not clear, necessarilypainful stimulus doesn’t Perhaps the pain lead pain behaviour. to another priority to is suppressed give to as mating.’ such behaviour,