THE caricature of Scotland as the land of the deep-fried Mars bar is just that.

But the sad truth is that caricatures tend to be rooted in reality. It may be a perversion of the truth, but sadly truth is buried in there.

At our best, we can rightly lay claim to being the source of some of the finest food on the planet, from our magnificent seafood to our beef, lamb and venison. The question is: Why does this not always extend to our national diet? Why is pride in our produce not reflected in what our children eat at the school gate, where chips, burgers and deep fried pizzas too often dominate?

Carlo Petrini, the Italian activist and founder of the Slow Food movement which campaigns against industrialised global junk food is on a visit to Scotland to argue the case for Scotland to return to the true path its natural resources should justify.

"A great nation like Scotland is not just whisky and salmon," he said yesterday. "It has a great tradition of artisan cheesemaking, of soups and broths, and there are some amazing breeds of animals here.

"I sense a renewed pride in its specific food heritage and knowledge of food, and see that young farmers and producers are engaging in this. Your national bard was a farmer, but he didn't work for Nestle. What's starting now in Scotland is beautiful."

Let's hope so, but it is a war as yet unwon. The truth is that high quality food is part of the affluence divide. Farmer's markets tend to operate in our wealthier suburbs, allotments are sought after by those already comfortably off, and it is the middle class who obsess about healthy food while those on the breadline are too often exhausted by long hours and poor pay, so turn to freezer food because of those pressures.

In an era of increasing zero hours contracts and low-paid jobs, as statistics revealed this week, it is no easy thing to persuade people to return to the old ways of cooking from fresh produce.

Our best hope is in our schools, but there too there are pressures on prime subjects and exam results so that there is little scope to get the message across.

"Scotland should have more farmers' markets, and they should be in the most deprived areas of our cities," said Mr Petrini. Who could argue with that? But how do hard-pressed families on low wages juggle with their own aspirations, in particular the costs of child care, while joining the slow food revolution.

Slow food is, by definition, time consuming. The one thing many families on low incomes do not have is free time.

"If you start with food, you arrive at freedom," he declared, a wonderful sentiment which we applaud, but it should be no surprise that families with both parents in work, often by sheer necessity to make ends meet, have a shortage of the very commodity which slow food relies on.

We have the natural resources. Through schooling and wider education we can send out the right messages. But creating time and space for ordinary families to join the food revolution may be another matter.