1. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Who: Celebrity chef, ethical farmer and food campaigner

Why: He's fried a human placenta and consumed it on screen, showed us how to fish sustainably, and cook our own garden snails for supper. He's taught us how to forage, fricassee and grow your own. And this month, Fearnley-Whittingstall tackled the problem of cheap chicken - and the life of those miserable two-for-a-fiver birds that supermarkets claim we demand. 'All we've done with the chicken campaign is to start a conversation. But we think it is an important one.' So do we, Hugh. So do we.

2. Harriet Lamb

Who: Managing director, Fairtrade Foundation

Why: Since she took over in 2001, Lamb has guided the foundation through a period of rapid growth and recognition. During that time the number of products certified as fairtrade has risen from 80 to 800 and is still increasing. Lamb knows her stuff, from working for the German Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International where she co-ordinated initiatives worldwide, to living in rural India for 18 months. Now based in London, she proves her holiness by cycling to meetings. We salute her. fairtrade.org.uk

3. The Prince of Wales

Who: Eco-royalty

Why: For his unstinting support of farmers and what he refers to as British 'agri-culture'. For not being afraid to challenge big businesses and putting up with ridicule from the press for his troubles. For excellent ginger biscuits, and for convincing us that mutton (mutton!) is delicious.

4. Stuart Rose

Who: CEO, Marks & Spencer

Why: For proving that even massive knicker-touting supermarkets can go green. And for that whole 'there is no Plan B' business. We liked that.

5. Rebecca Hosking

Who: Wildlife camerawoman and anti-plastic bag campaigner

Why: After persuading her home town to ditch plastic bags she became an accidental hero for the anti-plastic movement.

6. Rupert Howes

Who: CEO Marine Stewardship Council

Why: Howes is the man making it OK to eat fish again. When he took over at the MSC in 2004 it was a small charitable organisation dedicated to preventing over-fishing and to helping consumers understand what fish they should avoid. At that time, 11 fisheries around the globe were certified as reaching the well-respected MSC standard. Now that figure is 26 (with another 47 on the way), accounting for 7 per cent of the world's fisheries. Between them last year they processed more than four million tonnes of fish. Forty two per cent of the worldwide salmon catch and 40 per cent of the world's prime white catch comes under the auspices of the MSC. One thousand schools in the UK serve their fish and at least 1,100 fishy products carry the MSC blue tick. msc.org

7. Sophi Tranchell

Who: Managing director, Divine Chocolate

Why: In 1999 Sophi Tranchell answered an ad that might have been written by Willy Wonka: 'Come and work in a chocolate company and change the world.' Eight years later she's the multi-award-winning managing director of a unique chocolate business, and has masterminded its expansion into America. Divine Chocolate is made with cocoa bought from Kuapa Kokoo, a Ghanaian farmers' co-op, at Fairtrade prices. The farmers - who have representatives at every Divine board meeting - also receive $150 (around £80) for per tonne that is invested into projects such as building schools and providing clean drinking water. With a turnover of £9 million there's a way to go before Divine rivals the likes of Mars, Cadbury and Nestlé, but at least their chocolate is guilt-free as well as really, really delicious. Though, sadly, it can still make you fat. divinechocolate.com

8. Tim Lang

Who: Professor of food science, City University

Why: Thirty years ago people probably thought Lang was a bit loopy. These days the esteemed professor of food science (and food policy) at London's City University is a highly respected academic - the man who coined the phrase 'food miles', the expert who understood the link between diet and poverty and the pioneer who was bemoaning substandard food in schools before Jamie Oliver had even learned to mouth the word 'pukka'. Most likely to say: 'If a country doesn't sort out how it feeds its children, it doesn't deserve to be called civilised.' Least likely to say: 'Turkey Twizzlers are a great source of vitamin C.'

9. Jamie Oliver

Who: TV chef and campaigner

Why: For making heroines of dinner ladies and now investigating the evils of cheap meat on primetime TV.

10. Patrick Holden

Who: Director of the Soil Association

Why: For presiding over a tenfold increase in sales of Soil Association-accredited organic produce and for championing small producers and farmers. soilassociation.org

11. Andy Good

Who: Director, Equal Exchange

Why: Good runs this Scotland-based workers cooperative that sells fairtrade and organic food. Equal Exchange have been pioneers in the fairtrade movement since they were founded back in 1979 but now, working with Twin Trading, they're giving nut farmers a chance to escape poverty, launching Liberation nuts late last year. Nut farmers in the developing world often get a very rough deal, with little access to clean water, let alone international markets, but Liberation has helped farmers in Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Kerala form their own co-operatives, and they make up the major shareholders (42 per cent) of the company, too. Even better, the farmers are being taught about sustainability, helping to safeguard valuable rainforests. You can buy the nuts at Oxfam shops and soon in most major supermarkets too.

chooseliberation.com

equalexchange.co.uk

12. Andrew Mallison

Who: Fish technologist for Marks & Spencer

Why: He might not be up to speed on their washable cashmere V-necks and gold sequined trapeze dresses but what Andrew Mallison doesn't know about fish probably isn't worth knowing. From Scottish langoustines to Cornish sole, he's weaned us off cod and helped to make M&S a global corporate leader in promoting sustainable seafood. Even independent groups like Greenpeace and the Marine Conservation Society are impressed. What next? Sustainably farmed tilapia fishcakes, anyone?

13. Guy Watson

Who: Founder, Riverford box scheme

Why: Notwithstanding the stockpile of gently rotting carrots in the bottom of the fridge, weekly veg deliveries have become de rigueur dinner-party conversation for the kolrabi-eating classes and the perfect excuse for not schlepping to the supermarket every week. Guy Watson, Devon farmer-turned-New-York-management-consultant-turned-Devon-farmer-again, is the mastermind behind Riverford, one of the longest-running and most successful box schemes. Back in 1985 he started growing organic vegetables on three acres with a wheelbarrow, a borrowed tractor and £4,000 of savings. Now Riverford co-ordinates over 45,000 deliveries every week, with franchise farms across the UK. If we're not eating our five a day, Watson most certainly isn't the one to blame. riverford.co.uk

14. David Cameron

Who: MP and Leader of the opposition

Why: He cycles, he recycles and there's no doubting the fact that David 'Dave' Cameron has forced green issues onto the parliamentary agenda and into the mainstream.

15. Richard Reed

Who: Co-founder, Innocent

Why: The Innocent juice story is inspiration to anyone in a suit who has questioned the meaning of life on a Monday morning. Along with co-founders Adam Balon and Jon Wright, Richard Reed gave up his job as an advertising exec to launch a range of soft drinks. Turned down 20 times by banks, in a market where their nearest rival was PepsiCo, the future looked bleak until an American investor came on board. Now Innocent smoothies, which are made from 100 per cent fruit, has a turnover of almost £100m and the kind of cool yet healthy image certain big brands would die for. And they've just started making their bottles from recycled plastic. So, good, basically.

16. Geetie Singh

Who: The owner of the Duke of Cambridge organic pub

Why: Having been raised on a commune where they grew their own food, it's fair to say Geetie Singh has always known her organic onions. However, as the owner of Britain's first organic gastropub she has proved herself a pioneer in her own right. The pub in Islington, London, which opened back in the organic dark ages of 1998, is the only one to have Soil Association accreditation. Marine Stewardship Council certification for her exemplary sourcing of fresh fish is said to be next. dukeorganic.co.uk

17. Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley

Who: Founders, Green & Black's Chocolate

Why: Sams and Fairley founded their organic chocolate company, Green & Black's, in 1991 and were the first people to bring organic and then fairtrade chocolate to a mass market. Their organic Maya Gold chocolate bar (the first British fairtrade product) is the livelihood for a whole district of Belize, and the thing worth getting out of bed for for those of us with a sweet tooth. And now, from their all-organic Judges Bakery in Hastings, the pair are going all out for sustainable fish. greenandblacksdirect.com

18. Rick Stein

Who: TV chef and restaurateur

Why: For his tireless pursuit of local food heroes, and his involvement in Cefas's Clean Fishing projects, aiming to cut bycatch and create sustainable fisheries.

19. Peter Singer

Who: Author and philosopher

Why: For giving fainthearted foodies a run for their money in his controversial book, Eating: What We Eat and Why It Matters (co-written with Jim Mason). For going beyond the usual predictable ethical arguments. For speaking out against fancy restaurants. For not taking a knee-jerk position on big brands. For saying a five-mile drive in your four-wheel drive to purchase an organic lettuce is, well, just not helpful.

20. Andrew Whitely

Who: Uber-baker

Why: Andrew Whitely is to bread what Heston Blumenthal is to the perfectly fried chip. A former BBC Russian Service producer, it was way back in the Seventies when Whitely converted a stone barn next to his house in deepest Cumbria into a small bakery with a wood-fired bread oven. But it was on a chance trip to Russia where he discovered a range of rye breads that brought Village Bakery to the attention of Britain's foodies. His book, Bread Matters, part polemic about the pitiful state of British baking, part domestic science A-level in all things yeasty, has become a bible for bread-lovers, and those who agree that the airing cupboard is the perfect spot for a pungent starter dough. breadmatters.com

21. Arthur Potts Dawson

Who: Chef and co-owner, Acorn House

Why: Is Potts Dawson's Acorn House the only well-trendy restaurant with a wormery? In an industry renowned for diabolical amounts of waste, Acorn House in London has fast gained a reputation for prize-winning organic local food and a minimal carbon footprint. They produce just one bag of rubbish per service, and they compost the leftovers on the roof. Potts Dawson's venture is also a training ground for the next generation of green chefs. Next up, another new restaurant, the Water House, opening in February in East London, complete with composting toilets. acornhouserestaurant.com.

22. Anya Hindmarch

Who: Fashion designer

Why: With her 'I'm not a plastic bag' bag, Hindmarch got us thinking about what we carry our shopping home in, and kick-started a planet-saving trend for cotton totes and hempy satchels.

23. Hugh Raven

Who: Director, Soil Association Scotland

Why: One-time politico turned environmentalist, Raven tired of politics after two elections as a Scottish Labour candidate and became director of the Soil Association Scotland instead. Raven's family have been farmers in North Argyll for generations and he's currently working towards making the Soil Association's organic-sustainable ethos central to Scottish farming. He lives in Edinburgh during the week, and at weekends, he and his wife manage a 60-square-mile estate, Ardtornish, which has 20 miles of coastline, and an ecological restaurant, the Whitehouse, in the village of Lochaline - plus they're both active in the Slow Food movement. He's also a keen line fisherman and sailor. And he has kids. But it's not like he's superhuman or anything. soilassociationscotland.org

24. Tom Aikens

Who: Chef and owner of Tom's Place

Why: For setting up, with his twin Robert, the most sustainable fish and chip shop he possibly could and campaigning on fish with Greenpeace. tomsplace.org.uk

25. Mike Small

Who: Inventor, The Fife Diet

Why: If you thought the Fife Diet consisted of shortbread, lager and 20 Lambert & Butler then think again. Mike Small, a writer from Burntisland in Fife on the east coast of Scotland, has corralled his wife, kids and most of his neighbours to eat locally in a bid to show how it's possible to survive on produce sourced from nearby, whatever the season or the weather. If you fancy barley hotpot with turnips and kale you know where to go. Just don't turn up with a bottle of Rioja. fifediet.wordpress.com

26. Peter Kindersley

Who: Farmer

Why: For not giving in to a peaceful retirement (he sold his publishing house, Dorling Kindersley, in 2005) aged 62; for setting up his own farm, after buying little bits of land over 27 years near his home near Oxford. For not using pesticides or anything synthetic on his produce. For not dealing with supermarkets, but selling his produce from his website or at farmers' markets. For having an eco-centre that does ethical weddings, of all things. Oh, and for zealously protecting all the little bats on his estate. sheepdrove.com

27. Ian Tolhurst (aka Tolly)

Who: Vegetable farmer

Why: Tolhurst Organics is a sustainably-run farm, and has a veg-box scheme with a difference - by Tolly's calculations, vegetables for one family for a year from his farm will use only five litres of diesel. He only delivers to an area within 25 miles of the farm, and runs a drop-off scheme where vegetable boxes are left at collection points in local towns for people to fetch on journeys they'd be doing anyway. He's even written a plan for how he'll carry on farming when fossil fuels run out. Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association says, 'Tolly has to be the future of how we'll get our food'.

0118 9843428, 01865 556151, tolhurstorganic@yahoo.co.uk.

28. Carlo Leifert

Who: Professor of ecological agriculture, Newcastle University, director of the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group

Why: Last year, after a four-year, EU-funded study, Professor Leifert's team at Nafferton Farm announced that organic food really is better for you, in direct defiance of the government's line. Defying the powers-that-be is no new thing for Leifert: he quit the government's GM review panel in 2003 because he felt that the quality of science was too low and that the debate was dominated by biotech supporters. The aim of Leifert's team is to discover as many ways to help farmers work organically as possible. Leifert's current project speaks for itself; it is called Better Organic Bread. ncl.ac.uk

29. Tim Wilson

Who: Pig farmer and founder of The Ginger Pig

Why: This one-time antiques dealer and accidental pig farmer, who found himself with too much pork on his hands when his Tamworth hobbies all got pregnant, is slowly changing our expectations about how pork should taste and how pigs should be reared. His exemplary produce, and kind but unsentimental rearing practices are a world away from mass-produced meat from miserable pigs.

thegingerpig.co.uk

30. Lady Caroline Cranbrook

Who: Campaigner

Why: Yes, she sounds like an Oscar Wilde character but Lady Caroline Cranbrook is, in fact, a tireless rural campaigner who recently managed to see off Tesco when the men in suits planned to open a superstore in her local town of Saxmundham. A staunch supporter of local businesses, particularly in the east of England where she lives, she is to be found on countless committees doing battle with the Big Four. Least likely to be overheard saying at the checkout: 'How many Nectar Card points do I get for a £2 chicken?' eeda.org.uk

31. Richard Guy and Gilly Metherell

Who: Founders, the Real Meat Company

Why: Disgusted with the lack of ethical meat available, in 1986 Guy and Metherell set up their brand to provide people with meat they could trust. More than two decades on, they still run the company with the same stringent codes of practice, and all the nay-sayers who thought they were crackpots are eating their words. Everything they sell must be completely traceable - they even DNA-test the meat they supply to check no one's sneaking in produce that doesn't make the grade. Their website is an impassioned treatise on why they do what they do - all capital letters and rants against the supermarkets - plus online ordering and technical tips for cooking their fabulous produce. realmeat.co.uk

32. Catherine Conway

Who: Ethical shopkeeper

Why: If Catherine Conway's innovative grocery shop in northeast London had a mission statement, it might be 'This is not a bag'. The store, Unpackaged, has not only banished non-biodegradable carriers from behind the till, it's also taken away almost all of its packaging, leaving shoppers to bring their own jars, pots and bags to fill with everything from organic wholefoods and dried fruits to eco-friendly laundry liquid and recycled loo paper. beunpackaged.com

33. Jonathan Smith

Who: Farmer, Scilly Organics

Why: Not many 26-year-olds lie awake at night, worrying about what the wind is doing to their polytunnels, but Jonathan Smith does, even if he's spent a day hard at work with his hoe. At the tender age of six, Smith declared that he wanted to be a farmer, and now, 20 years later, he's realised his dream, singlehandedly running his own smallholding. His watchwords are local, local, local - he only sells his produce on the Scilly Isles. scillyorganics.co.uk

34. Keith Abel and Elle Heeks

Who: Veg box entrepreneurs

Why: They may have just sold a big chunk of their business, Abel & Cole, to a private equity firm, but since this means that they're able to expand their veg-box delivery service beyond the M25, then surely it's forgivable. They don't use air-freighting, their delivery vans are LPG or biodiesel, packaging gets recycled and their organic produce is, on average, cheaper, or the same price, as supermarket equivalents. abel-cole.co.uk

35. Penny Newman

Who: Chief executive, Cafédirect

Why: A pink-haired former Avon lady, Penny Newman turned Cafédirect into a multimillion pound business (with no majority shareholders) when she took over 10 years ago, transforming it from a tiny little company selling distinctly average ('interesting' is her word for it) fairtrade coffee out of charity shop catalogues to a gourmet drinks company selling single-origin fairtrade produce in shops all over the country, without compromising the company's values. cafedirect.co.uk

36. Zac Goldsmith

Who: Director, the Ecologist magazine

Why: He may be worth about £300 million, but that hasn't stopped him knuckling down and working hard to popularise the Ecologist, as well as establishing FARM, an organisation that aims to get environmentalists and farmers talking. He has also advised the Conservatives on green policies.

37. Barney Haughton

Who: Chef and restaurateur, Bordeaux Quay

Why: His Bristol restaurant is built from reclaimed and sustainable materials, his suppliers are all as local as possible, his tablecloths are organic cotton and there are whopping great solar panels on the roof. He even employs a 'sustainability manager'. bordeaux-quay.co.uk

38. Oliver Rowe

Who: Chef and owner, Konstam

Why: Rowe manages to achieve what sounds both implausible and, to be honest, unpleasant: sourcing at least 85 per cent of the food for his East London restaurant from within the tube map. Amazingly it's all delish. konstam.co.uk

39. Jody Scheckter

Who: Racing-driver-turned- organic-farmer

Why: He might have made his money guzzling carbon on the track, but he's putting it to good use now, farming organically and keeping rare animal breeds alive. laverstokepark.co.uk

40. Corinne Bailey Rae

Who: Eco-celebs, led by Corinne Bailey Rae

Why: Cynical as we sometimes are about celebrities going charity-wild, you've got to hand it to them for getting causes into the headlines. pumpaid.org

· Agree? Disagree? Tell us who we missed on the food blog

· Nominations came from a range of experts including Joanna Blythman, Andrew Purvis, Alex Renton, Alex James, Patrick Holden, Jay Rayner, Lucy Siegle, and the OFM team

· This article was amended on February 11 2008. The article above described Mike Small, creator of the Fife Diet, as a 'writer from Burntisland on the island of Fife'. No man is an island - and neither is Fife. This has been corrected.