I want to be a conscientious consumer

I not only want to be a good consumer by always hunting out the best deals, I want to be a good consumer by doing the right thing.

I have just spent two weeks sunning myself in Spain. I wanted to pay an optional  'green tax' with BA, only I couldn't find the option when I was booking the flights. Instead I will go direct to do this with www.climatecare.org - I apparently need to pay £5 to make amends for the CO2 my journey created. I was expecting far worse.

Refreshed from my holiday I'm now determined to do the right thing on food shopping. I've lazily slipped into regular visits to our local giant Tesco - it has helped wipe out nearly all our local shops. Instead I'm going to try a farm delivery service. A box of organic fruit and vegetables (sourced from local farmers where possible) will be delivered to my door once a week.

The benefits are:

* Producers get a better deal.

* The food is organic, so my insides are better, the land benefits and there's no CO2-creating industrial processes for pesticides, etc.

* The food is seasonal and sourced locally - so produces very few food miles in shipping it to me.

* My vegetable box is refilled each week - so no packaging or plastic bags. (Our reporter Simon Lambert has strong views on this).

I've opted for farmaround.co.uk which seems to be pretty cheap - I'll get a veg box for £7 and fruit for £5, plus £1 for delivery.

Rival sites include organicdelivery.co.uk, abel-cole.co.uk, riverford.co.uk, organics-4u.co.uk and freshfood.co.uk. It's hard to make direct comparisons on price as box sizes may vary. However, info on ethical commitments are pretty clear on all the sites. Have a browse and tell me what you think. I'll let you know how I get on with farmaround.co.uk

Also let me know any other ideas you might have about being a conscientious consumer. (How to post a comment)

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

Useful links

* If you want to fightback against Tesco, Asda et al, don't miss our brilliant round-up at www.thisismoney.co.uk/supermarketwatch

* See more about how This is Money is holding big business to account and how we can help you in my editor's message at www.thisismoney.co.uk/message

Comments

[Michael]

We have been using a box service for four weeks and so far it has been good. It makes you think about what you're eating because you never know what you are going to get week in, week out.

[ernest]

make a huge difference by choosing where you bank. it's easy to forget that banks use your money to make more money - and you may not like what many invest in. banks like Tridos and the Co-operative have strict policies to control what goes where (I liked Co-operative so much I joined them, so I am biased, but the comment stands). thanks.

[Andrea]

One of the single biggest things you can do to help the environment as a conscientious consumer, is to switch to a supplier who provides electricity from renewable sources, but who also, most importantly, invests in constructing new renewable energy supply. I've just switched to Ecotricity, who, I understand, invest the most per customer in new renewable energy sources. Ecotricity pledges to match your local supplier's standard tariff. If you simply go on another supplier's green tariff, you may in some cases only be using a renewable source that was already in existence anyway, and not be helping to replace the dinosaur technology that we so desperately need to replace.