The pursuit of cheap food coupled with the buying power of the big supermarkets is putting farming livelihoods at risk, the Church of England has told the Competition Commission. Making farmers pay for supermarkets’ own promotions is just one of a number of invisible and pernicious practices.

The Bishop of Exeter has encouraged congregations not just to thank God for the food they eat but to remember the farmers who produce it at their Harvest Festivals.

Churches and labour groups have been lobbying the McDonald's food corporation for months over their labour practices. They are pleased with a new agreement to pay migrant workers more, but want to see further action.

The Rev Clifton Kirkpatrick, who moderates the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), is urging fast-food giant Burger King to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to address wages and working conditions in the tomato fields.

Bread for the World, a national Christian anti-hunger network, plans to distribute thousands of educational kits to churches around the USA urging churchgoers to lobby members of Congress to change federal agricultural and nutrition programmes in favour of the world's ‚Ä' and the country's ‚Ä' poor.