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Entomophagy is usually sold as more environmentally friendly than eating meat or a plant-based diet. Crickets, the most commonly farmed insects, have a smaller environmental footprint than beef.

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An increase in popularity could drive up process. There is a very real danger that raising the price of insects may mean that people who have enjoyed them for centuries choose to sell them instead of consuming them. In the absence of a comparable source of immediate income, this is the logical choice for people who are living hand-to-mouth. Yet this can contribute to protein and iron deficiencies and does nothing to combat inequality. It’s crucial that insect distributors pay a price – financial and beyond – that supports collectors’ and farmers’ livelihoods. Not all edible insect businesses are equal and there’s no Fairtrade certification for edible insects just yet.

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The insect protein market is projected to be worth $8 billion by 2030. In addition, in the current climate, commoditising insects as food may contribute significantly to the livelihoods of some of the world’s most marginalised communities. Insects have traditionally been collected, prepared and sold by people who hold little economic or political power. Wealthy consumers could contribute to a fairer world by promoting and purchasing edible insects.

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Agricultural expansion is causing staggering losses of biodiversity and moving to a diet inclusive of insects will reduce this.

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Many of the euthanasia methods developed for vertebrates do not transfer well to invertebrates and more research is needed. In addition, the ways in which some insects are killed involve heating—boiling, frying, steaming, roasting, etc. This is probably extremely aversive. Recent studies have discovered that insects have a certain types of neurons that serve as pain receptors, in order to sense and avoid dangerous stimuli.

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The number of insects required to produce a single meal is magnitude higher than the number of chickens or especially cows required to produce that meal. For example, one would have to eat about a thousand grasshoppers to equal the amount of protein in a twelve-ounce steak.

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Lean insect protein is a healthier choice for the consumer.

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Some insect-farming operations have nontrivial mortality rates and farms occasionally lose almost all their insects to disease. In 2015, cricket farms suffered a setback when a cricket paralysis virus hit the facilities over the winter, killing 90 percent of the livestock.

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Growing insects requires a fair amount of work for a relatively small output, and growers may need to buy grains, fruit, or vegetables to feed the insects. Keeping insects alive requires more input, including energy intensive heating systems, than what comes out, and if that feed comes from cultivated crops, it's not true that entomophagy also reduces crop cultivation.

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According to scientists, all animal production systems (including insects) add inefficiency because they are converting plant matter into animal matter. From an environmental perspective, a plant-based diet might be the best option because plants that can be consumed directly are best used as food instead of feed for insects.

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While some small-scale insect farms may be aiming to secure animal welfare, it's not clear that long-term the entomophagy business wouldn't go in a similar direction as the livestock business. Once the entomophagy industry grows and faces pressures to cut costs when supplying bulk quantities of insect protein to multinational food corporations, it seems likely that high ideals will be lost.

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Farmed insects enjoy pleasant lives. Insects raised in farms live in dark conditions (preferable environment), with ample and abundant food supply, no natural predators, no risk of outside diseases or parasites.

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Many farmers in the meat industry don’t want to or can’t spend adequate time and money on maintenance or optimal welfare of their animals. It’s more cost effective to pack animals into smaller spaces and allow some rate of disease and illness.

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Killing insects is a more humane practice compared to how the meat industry runs their abattoirs. The majority of scientists believe that insects likely do not feel pain as, due to their short lives, it would be an evolutionary disadvantage to be hampered by pain.