Create a new foodie you

Intermediate
Already drinking Fairtrade coffee? Do the same for your wine - poor treatment of workers is one of the key ethical issues besetting the industry at the moment. Visit fairtrade. org.uk for info on the labels to look out for.

Hard
Learn how to fillet fish. London's Billingsgate fish market (www.seafoodtraining.org; 020 7517 3548) runs a range of courses starting at £35, or try the various branches of Fishworks, £175 (www.fishworks.co.uk) or Rick Stein's Padstow Seafood School, from £175 (01841 533466; www.rickstein.com). Alternatively take an online class with Mitch Tonks at bbc.co.uk/ food/get_cooking.

Intermediate
Planning to jet off on a foodie pilgrimage? Offset your flight's environmental footprint by going to carbonneutral. com. It'll calculate the amount of CO2 generated, then offer a range of climate-friendly projects to balance it out. So a trip to New York to dine at Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 can be offset with a £8.88 investment in UK woodland.

Hard
Keep chickens. No, really, think of the regular supply of super-fresh, organic eggs. For £395 Omlet.co. uk (0845 450 2056) will provide you with two organically-reared, ready-to-lay chickens, all the kit you need to care for them, a stylish eglu, plus a mini-course on chicken husbandry.

Easy
Go organic with this quick guide to what you should be buying: chicken, pork and bacon (to avoid factory farming); lettuce, spinach, apples, pears, berries, melons, bananas and oranges and grains such as oats (non-organic are heavily sprayed); root veg like potatoes and carrots (to avoid high levels of pesticides); and dairy (see March's suggestion). Avoid imported organic food as the air miles outweigh the benefits of going organic.

Intermediate
Upgrade your holiday reading: try the seminal French Provincial Cooking (£8.99, Penguin; Olive offer £7.99) by Elizabeth David, which introduced the British to the joys of olive oil. Also try Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything (£5.99, Headline; Olive offer £5.50) and Much Depends on Dinner (only available secondhand on amazon. co.uk) by Margaret Visser, an awardwinning food writer.

Hard
Love coffee? Learn to make espresso like a professional barista at the London School of Coffee in Kingston upon Thames (£158.62 for one day; 020 8439 7981; www.londonschoolofcoffee.com). You'll be working with cafe-style machines but the skills you pick up are easily transferrable to domestic espresso makers.