Economies, ethics and emotions: Farmer distress within the moral economy of agribusiness

In the international literature farmer stress, mental illness and suicide are linked to economic conditions affecting farm viability that have emerged in relation to the neoliberal transformation, corporatization and globalization of agribusiness juxtaposed with climate change and concerns over environmental sustainability and periodic agricultural crises. Research and scholarship in this area has largely been framed through mental health frameworks informed by positivist and 'psy' discourses that marginalize ethical, political and emotional dynamics that shape farmer distress. At the margins of this dominant discursive framework however, interdisciplinary scholarship is emerging that problematizes farmer distress and suicide. This paper extends and contributes to this body of scholarship through insights derived from critical consideration of the operation of a moral economy in relation to farmer distress. It draws on elements of Andrew Sayer's work, which poses intersections between moral economy, political economy and wellbeing, to analyse empirical data from interviews with Australian wine grape growers experiencing distress. The paper demonstrates that in this case study, emotional distress arises from ethical breaches within social and economic relations between farmers, corporations and the State. In doing so, it brings the ethical and emotional dimensions of economic activity to the fore and thus calls for the problematization of social and political responses to farmer distress and suicide prevention. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.