Ten years from now Scotland will look and feel a very different place.

Or so our ever optimistic government hopes.

It may not be flowing with soya milk and heather honey - or even North Sea oil - but it will be awash with home-grown produce which is so healthy and fresh it will set our cheeks aglow and make our muscles ripple.

Our children, having been taught how food is produced, will look down at their plates and not see the fruits of the deep frier but that which until recently was growing under the tangiest of manure in their own back yard.

They may also see a sausage but it will not be one of those composed of nail filings and sawdust. Instead, it will consist of prime pork and perhaps a few well-chosen vegetables and herbs, which they will be able to identify as easily as they can presently estimate the circumference of a pizza.

Indeed, so informed will be about the provenance of what they are eating they may even know the name of the pig upon whose meat they are feasting.

This, it seems, is one of the main aims of the Scottish Food Commission, which, under the aegis of Shirley Spear, renowned restaurateur and chef, and 16 "industry experts from various fields", has been given the job of revolutioning what we eat. It is, insists Food and Environment Secretary, Richard Lochhead, the latest step on the road to Scotland becoming a Good Food Nation. "By 2025," he says, "we want people from every walk of life to take pride and pleasure in the food served day by day in Scotland."

As aspirations go this must count as one of the more ambitious, for of all the saws, "old habits die hard" remains one of the most potent.

Food is not something we Scots enjoy but consume with as much thought as we watch the drivel on our screens. It is a means to an end and that means the filling of our bellies with whatever is nearest to hand. Once replete we sit back and allow the sludge to digest and, in so doing, we pile on the pounds.

Some two-thirds of adults in Scotland are currently overweight and the numbers are going up rather than down. Meanwhile, we are bombarded by pronouncements from Ms Spear's peers, be it Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or Gordon Ramsay, all of whom want us to eat better, live longer and keep visiting their restaurants and buying their books.

You might think this culinary bombardment should have some effect but you would be wrong. The more these worthies tell us what to do the less inclined are we to pay them any heed. Thousands may dream of becoming masterchefs but for everyone who does there are millions of Bunters stuffing themselves with polyunsaturated fats.

Mr Lochhead, I am sure, is an honourable man who always shops at farmers' markets and dines off the finest and freshest local produce.

That he wants us all to be like him is admirable but he is, of course, whistling in the wind. For he must surely know that history is not on his side.

One well recalls how, almost two decades ago, even that great gourmand, Michael Forsyth, then Secretary of State for Scotland, launched his Natural Cooking for Scotland initiative flanked by celebrity chefs, businessmen and tourism agencies.

Like Mr Lochhead, Mr Forsyth was high of mind though he was less interested in obesity rates than in encouraging tourists to come to here and sample the fare. Scotland, he said, needed to make better use of its "original cuisine in order to stamp its own unique identity on visitors to our shores".

This followed the setting up of a working party by the Chief Medical Officer to assess the relevance of diet to health and to make recommendations for improvements in diet which might stop some of us shuffling off prematurely to the great hypermarket in the sky.

Its success, or lack thereof, may be gauged by the fact that all these years later we still feel the need for commissions and ministries and alchemists who serve sauces that look like frog spawn to tell us what we should eat.

Doubtless there are people who think pot noodle and burgers washed down with Irn Bru constitute a balanced diet. My guess, though, is that most people know whether they're overweight or are eating unhealthily but lack the time or motivation to change their ways.

What they want is convenience food that is nourishing and satisfying and tasty and affordable. Offer them that, Ms Spear, and you may yet make a difference.