ALEX FAWCETT, a dryland farmer at Narrabri, has used chemicals with the best of them. He has a drawer full of labels to prove it, collected in the 1990s when he and his father, Ron, regularly planted two farms totalling 1300 hectares with chemical-dependent grain crops.

A quick rummage through 50 to 60 labels collected over three years showed that the chemicals included a highly volatile form of 2,4-D which has been banned in Europe and the United States and is now suspended in Australia because of its capacity to kill neighbouring crops and native fish and plants through spray drift.

Mr Fawcett used the insecticide chlorpyrifos, which has been under priority review by the regulator for 10 years; the herbicide diuron, restricted two years ago on environmental grounds; and the pesticide fipronil, also under official investigation over concerns about adverse effects in humans and animals.

But his chemical habit stopped seven years ago when he suffered shocking hives after spraying his cotton crop and then treated the maddening itch with another powerful chemical, cortisone...

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