Nooooo are you serious?! Well how do we quantify this? In terms of insect lives lost? Carbon output? How does this compare to the synthetics production in lacquer or polyurethane/varnish (do these even decompose?). If I had to choose between something that ultimately breaks down and returns to the life cycle vs. something semi-permanent, I'd choose the compostable material. As an aside, insects have been predicted to become a major nutrition resource in the future (high protein, vitamins, etc). So what do you suggest I, or people, do? I guess I could just keep the cloth plain...

Edit: After reading the article, it sounds like they need to plant trees to harvest the lac. I guess in my mind the battle to be green needs to be prioritized. Cows, for example, is the #1 carbon producer in the world, over transportation, so I eat little to no beef. I try to stay away from synthetics. Try to live simply and recycle. I don't tend to bother myself with "green" tire patches (recent thread) and probably will sleep ok knowing about shellac production...unless you can convince me otherwise (and I love to be convinced!)

20,000 tonnes annually so 20M kg, which is 6X10^12 insect lives lost annually. 25% of bugs remain in shellac so we eat it when we take pills or eat candy. But then again we also ingest a whole bunch of insects just by breathing (during sleep, riding our bikes, etc) haha. Oye*