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.

That left him with chemical sensitivity, a serious disability for a farmer whose livelihood depended on poisoning bugs and weeds. "If I get around chemicals I get a slight rash. I feel my lips start to swell - that's the first sign I've done something," Mr Fawcett said.

Now 43, he has been farming with his father since he was 16. They got caught in the spraying frenzy of the 1980s. Now they have decided to try something new, "fusion farming".

"It's the best of the organic and chemical worlds," Alex Fawcett said. He has full organic certification for his 800-hectare property and has grown an entire cotton crop without chemicals. This spring he grew chickpeas, spelt and Kamut, a type of wheat.

"It's quite challenging. It's also quite lonely. A lot of people I used to have quite a bit to do with tend to think I'm a bit mad and tend to avoid me a little bit. Because it brings into doubt their whole operation. If I'm right, then they're wrong, so it's far easier to think I must be wrong.

"I've even been told I'll breed up all the weeds and insects and I'll be the cause of the demise of the entire [cotton] industry. I'm not judgmental about people using chemicals. I went through the '80s where we were paying 22 and 25 per cent interest. People tried to manage their business the best they could. All the farm education is around chemicals. They [farmers] just go where they're made to go."

Mr Fawcett and his wife, Julie, just need one good year to get their heads above water. But he has regained his health. "I'm pretty right now. I can drink just as much beer as the next bloke."