The Australian National University's Dr Liz Hanna told a major health forum last week that the health of Australian farmers is being subjected to serious risks by exposure to some of the most dangerous chemicals available.

Dr Hanna said the increase in the rate of cancers in farming communities has become dire, exacerbated by little training and regulation of chemical use.

"The problem with most chemical exposure is that the human response is actually delayed many years and so the people that are exposed frequently and over many years often and usually don't show signs until many, many years later," Dr Hanna said.

The synergistic “cocktail effect” of many chemicals, albeit at legal limits, being combined in the environment and consumers’ diets, has long been a concern of the BFA.

Particularly problematic substances include organophosphate insecticides and pesticides, which have been connected to several types of cancer, sterility and cognitive deficits.

The agrichemical endosulfan is one example of a highly toxic (organochlorine cyclodiene) insecticide still in use in Australia.

BFA interviews with organic farmers have disclosed that many producers opt to ‘go organic’ because of health concerns and to avoid exposure to synthetic pesticides which are prohibited for use in organic production systems.

BFA standards convenor Dr Andrew Monk said similar stories tended to dominate the reasons why producers shifted from a conventional farming system to organic.

“Personal health is a major motivator as is making the connection with health of the soil as well as overall farm resilience and productivity," he said.

“It’s generally not until something goes wrong either at the farm or a personal level that people change their thinking.

"Moving into organic production often takes a major shift in mindset which is brought on by a major incident in peoples’ lives - for example cancer in the family."