17/06/2009 - A Canadian microbiologist says removing additives from food could reduce the incidence of cancer.

Doctor Shiv Chopra, a former senior adviser for Canada's health authority, has issued a warning to policy makers about the risks of using additives in meat, fruit and vegetables.

He told a group of politicians and industry stakeholders in Canberra on Tuesday that there needed to be a closer examination of the health impacts of the five pillars of food contamination - hormones, antibiotics, GM organisms, pesticides and slaughterhouse waste.

Removing the "five pillars" would lead to a healthier population, would reduce the incidence of cancer, while healthcare costs would be lower, he said.

Dr Chopra gave evidence before a Canadian Senate inquiry, which led to the banning of a controversial bovine growth hormone.

He warned the use of hormones in beef production could cause cancer, as could pesticides, which could also lead to reproductive and immune disorders.

"So you're putting whole populations at risk and future generations at risk," he said.

Removing each of these products out of food would make it organic.

"You don't need to label it, you don't need to certify it, then that food is automatically organic."

Queensland organic farmer Tom Nicholas said that farming practices being undertaken in Western Australia backed Dr Chopra's call for the use of pesticides to be eliminated.

He said that farmers in Western Australia were working with the "biology in the soil" rather than relying on pesticides.

"They're growing better crops, they're improving their soil and your silver bullet farmers, I take my hat off to them over there. But honestly, chemical farming in Australia is doomed.

"We're absolutely wrecking the soil and the only way to get it back is to start building the carbon in the soil and the only way to do that is through the biology."

Once that was done, it would prove beneficial for the land as well as human health, he said.

"So there's a revolution just waiting to happen."