Prince Charles made his remarks on a visit to Cumbria

The Prince told the BBC people had lost the "connection with the great stories" of the relationship between the farmer, the animal and the land.

He was helping to launch Junction 38, a project in Cumbria where farmers have set up their own meat processing plant.

Critics say local markets can only ever account for a tiny part of output.

'Sweeping it away'

Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight, the Prince warned that pandering to international markets would "just suck out every single interesting aspect" of farming.

He said agriculture was "not just as simple as sweeping it all away and having vast industrialised processes with one or two huge farmers who don't have that relationship to the land".

The Prince of Wales' view received support from many in the farming community.

Sean Rickard, a former economist for the National Farmers Union, said projects like Junction 38 "have to succeed".

Most of the French public go to supermarkets like they do here Lord Hoskins Northern Foods

"If British agriculture wants a profitable future, this is what they will have to do," he said.

But critics such as Lord Haskins, chairman of Northern Foods, said 95% of agriculture would always be carried out on a large-scale commercial way.

He said even in France, where there is a well-established local market with a high quality of local produce, such practices only account for a "tiny proportion" of what is sold.