More than a million marchers will descend on London this weekend for the Countryside Alliance march.

Some will want hunting to continue, some will be pleading rural poverty and others will accuse the Government of making a muck up of the farming industry.

There are people in cities such as Brighton and Hove who wouldn't mind a march on the countryside to protest about battery chicken farming, pesticides on fields and GM crops.

The trouble would be trying to find a focal point as a million people in a field at Lower Snoring wouldn't have the same impact as the same number milling around Trafalgar Square.

It is a pity there is this great divide between cities and the countryside as it was only a couple of centuries ago when we were nearly all tied to the land. Modern farming has freed many people from back-breaking and boring tasks but has also made much of the countryside a chemical-ridden prairie.

Farmers have worked wonders with increased yields so Britain is no longer dependent on agricultural imports as in the past but at what cost?

Look at a dairy herd and the chances are you will see cows with grossly distended udders through carrying far too much milk. Look at that machine being pulled by a tractor and the chances are it will be squirting gallons of some chemical on the fields.

Have you ever been to a battery chicken farm? I have and it is horrifying hens are kept in such appalling conditions. Anyone who eats eggs and chicken should be boycotting factory farms but most people do not know or care about them.

The ignorance of city people about the countryside is astounding. Most children cannot identify the leaves of common trees.

Now we can buy fresh veg and fruit from Sainsbury's almost any time of the year, the seasons are a mystery to them. I have see women complaining in shops about a lack of sprouts after a period of frost without realising it has been impossible to pick them.

Farmers do not always help themselves with their public image. Too often they are ploughing up footpaths which some townies use to explore the countryside and are locking gates which should be kept open.

Their pleas of poverty, while undoubtedly true in a growing number of cases, do not fit in well with obvious signs of wealth in many farmyards, such as rows of expensive cars.

There are some big issues to be discussed about the countryside apart from food.

Chief among them in Sussex is ensuring enough people on low and medium incomes can afford to live there among the farmers and wealthy incomers. Much more low-cost housing is needed in many villages.

Better public transport is needed to help the minority denied access to Range Rovers and other motors which have become a symbol of country life in many villages.

Every effort needs to be taken to preserve village pubs, schools, shops and churches.

But country folk have got to help themselves rather than moan about the lack of interest from the Government.

More farmers need to diversify into selling their wares direct to the public and opening attractions for them. There is tremendous longing from people for traditional rural life, which can be exploited in shops and cafes.

I fear this weekend the countryside contingent will muster bluster, much of it about hunting which, although a matter of principle to many, is a side issue compared with most I have mentioned.

Instead of bringing town and country folk closer together, this demonstration is likely to increase the divide.