President Alberto Fernández affirmed this Thursday that “science and technology guarantee the development” of a society and reaffirmed that the State “must take care of nurturing” children, by leading the launch of a food with technology developed by researchers of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet).
“It is an important day for everyone. Many times a large part of Argentines think that science and technology is something for very studious people and we do not know how it materializes in daily life. But the development of science and technology it is what guarantees the development and prosperity of societies”, affirmed Fernández from the Danone plant in Longchamps, province of Buenos Aires.
In this way, the president celebrated the launch of a new line of yogurt with probiotics produced by the company Danone with technology developed by Conicet that strengthens the immune system, contributes to the prevention of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.
Accompanied by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmus, the president assured that “eating is not the same as feeding oneself” and affirmed that this is not an issue that is “solved with the market, but that it must be the State that should take care of nurturing” childhoods,
“The best investment that the State can make is the one it makes in education, knowledge and technology because one invests in the future”he remarked.
In this sense, the president took the example of the National Soccer Team that won the last world championship that was held in Qatar and assured that the team “demonstrated that you have to keep your convictions high and that is why it did well.”
“Although many overwhelm you with their criticism, you have to summon the best and make them work as a team because that gives enormous strength to any project. That is the teaching that the team led by (technical director Lionel) Scaloni left us and I feel that we are doing that a bit here.“, he pointed out.
Fernandez said that “the richest societies” are “those that develop knowledge, science and technology”, which “is what the world needs”and illustrated that Norway and Finland “have formidable quality of life with this scientific and technological development” and are “the happiest societies in the world.”
In this sense, he worked so that “Argentina is not the breadbasket of the world but called to develop science and technology, to add value to the primary products” that it industrializes, “to give Argentines a better quality of life” and “also to the world when it arrives time to export”.
The president also valued the “satellite industry”, in which Argentina is one of the 10 countries in the world with satellites in orbit”, and that the next ones “will be launched from the south of the province of Buenos Aires”, which that will allow to have “independence and sovereignty”.
Fernández was accompanied by the president of the Conicet, Ana Franchi; and the CEO and senior vice president of Danone Cono Sur, John Garibaldi.
Also present were the Minister of Social Development, Victoria Toulouse Peacenational, provincial and municipal authorities, authorities from Conicet, Danone and the French embassy, among others.
For his part, Filmus He expressed a “double pride” for being a CONICET researcher and for being part of “a government that has placed science and technology and the articulation of the public and private spheres in a central place.”
“There are those who believe that investment in science is superfluous but there is no country in the world that has developed if it is not based on science and technology. Science is invested to solve people’s problems, not for researchers”, the minister said.
He also stressed that “it is not common that so much has been invested in science and technology” and outlined that “a few days ago it was reported about the destination of 106 million dollars for Conicet equipment and science”, in addition to “works with a federal sense that are being generated”.
The official contributed that these projects also allow “generating our own scientific sovereignty and generating this virtuous circuit between private companies and the State.”
“The Minister of Social Development has promised that she will take all this throughout the country to school canteens,” added Filmus.
He also warned that “without science and technology there is no development, there is no future, there is no sovereignty,” and he maintained that “our chances of developing as a people, our chance of having the Argentina that all our children and young people deserve depends on good measure of decisions such as those made by President Alberto Fernández, which is to invest in science and technology”.
Provision of yogurts to institutions with social purposes
The launch is part of the license agreement between the public body and the company Danone Argentina SA and provides for the provision of yogurt by the company to public welfare institutions for social purposes.
The company’s line of yogurts incorporates the probiotic strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus CRL1505, developed by Conicet.
This strain is capable of stimulating the immune system, increasing the local and systemic immune response, thus optimizing the natural defenses when preventing or dealing with respiratory and intestinal infections caused by viruses and bacteria, thus contributing to an improvement in quality. of life of the population.
The strain is part of the Cerela culture collection, which is based in Tucumán and is a national and international benchmark in the study of lactic acid bacteria, as well as a pioneer in technology transfer.
Also, the Conicet and the province of Tucumán will obtain royalties on the sale of the products.
In 2007, the Yogurito experience was also developed by scientists from Conicet in Cerela de Tucumán; a product that was not for sale, but was distributed for social purposes.
Yogurito originated as a social project and was, in the same way, an intersectoral work of the Ministries of Social Development, Education, Health of the Government of Tucumán and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation.
Before, in the 1980s, SancorBio, another probiotic food developed jointly by Cerela-Conicet and the SanCor company, was produced.
