President Noynoy Aquino is in New York attending the MDG Summit at the United Nations. As described by the UN, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight time-bound goals that provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.

They include goals and targets on income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation, and the Global Partnership for Development.

Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs, if achieved, will cut world poverty by half, save tens of millions of lives, and give billions of people the opportunity to benefit from the global economy.

This week, two very serious debates outside the UN affect several of the MDGs, particularly those about eliminating hunger, empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and ensuring environmental sustainability.

The first controversy involves Genetically Modified (GM) salmon, which grows at twice the rate of normal salmon. Scientists with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released research this month that concluded salmon genetically modified by the company Aqua Bounty was safe to eat and not substantially different from other salmon.

But environmentalists and health advocates disagree with the FDA’s findings. They fear that not enough salmon were tested by the FDA. They point out that there has not been enough time to find out what long lasting effects there could be from the engineered fish. Another concern: once in supermarket shelves, the GM salmon will not bear any label that will distinguish it from farmed or wild salmon.

In favor of what has been called “Frankenfish” is Yonathan Zohar, professor of marine biology and chairman of the Department of Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland. In a special report for CNN, Prof  Zohar attempted to put the debate over genetically engineered salmon in the proper context.

As the world’s population grows at an accelerating pace, so does the consumption of seafood, he said, adding that fish is harvested at a rate that exceeds the fisheries’ ability to replenish themselves. Fish species that used to be plentiful are now rare in the wild, with more than 50 percent of the world’s main fisheries stocks fully exploited, while another 28 percent are over-exploited or depleted.

In defense of GM salmon, Prof Zohar stresses the need for the aquaculture industry to grow fish in a way that is economically viable and environmentally responsible. He claims that used carefully, genetic engineering can produce fish that reach the market much faster and use less feed.

Here in the Philippines, aquaculture experiments have so far resulted in converting female tilapia fingerlings into males. The reason for artificially switching sexes is this: female tilapia are prolific breeders even before reaching market size, thus crowding the ponds and fishcages with millions of small, hungry tilapia which have no market value.

Another tilapia success is the red salt tilapia, sold in high end eateries as Kingfish. Red fish is favored by Chinese, Japanese and Korean patrons who are willing to pay Lapu-Lapu prices for an otherwise cheaper fish.

DANGEROUS BIRTH CONTROL PATCH

Empowerment of women and maternal health are the issues at stake in the controversy over a birth control patch which “Time” magazine called one of the best inventions of the year when introduced in 2002.

Watching NBC’s TODAY show this week, women around the world were shocked to learn that the birth control patch Ortho Evra significantly increases the risk for stroke and  for blood clots.

Since its launch, roughly 40 million prescriptions have been written for the patch. But with the increase in the number of women using it, there was a reported increase in claims of injury and death associated with it.

Internal documents obtained by NBC News intimates that pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson may have known years ago about the deadly risks of its birth control patch Ortho Evra. NBC reports that adverse event data for Ortho Evra was reportedly so compelling that in 2005, Johnson & Johnson Vice President Dr. Patrick Caubel resigned, stating in his resignation letter that  “The estrogenic exposure [of the patch] was unusually high, as was the rate of fatalities.” And he notes, the data provide “compelling evidence” which J&J ignored. “It became impossible for me to stay in my position as VP,” he wrote.

NBC also reports that another J&J vice president, Dr. Joel Lippman, is suing the company for wrongful termination, alleging that he was let go after he blew the whistle on the health dangers associated with the patch.

Calling the attention of the Philippines’ own Food and Drugs Administration, and all women of child- bearing age.