A VICAR has hit out at the "glut of food" in Britain, while elsewhere in the world people starve.

The Rev Rodney Nicholson, vicar of St Paul's, Low Moor, Clitheroe, spoke out in his parish magazine against the opening of the town's new Sainsbury's.

He commended the £5 million store for improving the appearance of the town centre and providing employment.

"I gather that the store's manager has been into local schools to make links with the local community. All this is good and hopefully Sainsbury's will provide an added incentive for people to visit Clitheroe.

"But my misgiving is that supermarkets advertise the glut of food in Britain and the west. We did not need another store in Clitheroe. There's more than enough food here already," the vicar said.

He claimed that in a world of hunger and poverty, it was "almost obscene" that people were constantly being tempted with new varieties of food and drink.

"A woman from Zimbabwe once expressed her shock to me that British supermarkets sold different varieties of pet foods, when food for humans was scarce in her country. Of course, I wish Sainsbury's well, but lavishly-laden supermarket shelves remind us of the inequality between we who have so much and the majority who have so little.

"There is also the disturbing fact that poorer countries produce luxury food such as tropical fruit for export, when their land could be better used for growing food to feed themselves," he said.

Mr Nicholson said happiness did not come from possessions and asked shoppers to re-assess their values.

"It's what we are, what we give and how we serve that counts. We brought nothing into the world and shall carry nothing out," he added.

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