The concept of consciousness, pain, suffering by bees and invertebrates may actually fall within a much larger paradigm shift of views.  There are a number of forces influencing this.  It likely hinges on the shift in the world population away from rural and closer to nature to urban and highly disassociated from the life and death processes of homesteading and self reliance.  Fewer and fewer people hunt, raise their own food, slaughter animals.  Add to that the expanding notion that food from animal sources is deleterious to health of the eaters and the planet.  So the attitudes of the average citizen drift into the interests of academics, regulators and ultimately consumers.  And here we are pondering subjects that our ancestors would not stop to consider as they moved through their daily life of survival.

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