Royalty without cruelty for Charles's sausage

The Prince of Wales is stepping into the high-street battle of the supermarket shelves by launching a range of foods produced by "sustainable agriculture": farming that respects wildlife, the countryside and farm animals, writes Mark Rowe.

The range is extensive: sausages, meat pies, bread, cheese, cider, beer, biscuits, fudge and tea, all stamped with the Prince's Duchy Original trading label.

Last week Waitrose began stocking a 99p white cob, and an organic brown loaf and a mixed- seed loaf, both pounds 1.09, produced under licence for Duchy Original at a north London bakery.

The Prince made a brief foray into organic bread and "cruelty-free" lamb from his Highgrove estate in the mid-Nineties and three varieties of Duchy Original biscuits have been on sale for about five years.

Cider will be on the shelves soon and within the next few months the Duchy label will start selling sausages, pies, cheese and beer.

The label is a subsidiary of the Prince's Charities Trust. The Trust's commercial manager, Fiona Gately, stressed the Prince would not receive a penny from the ventures but was keen to support sustainable agriculture.