The influence mechanism of environmental regulations on food security: the mediating effect of technological innovation

Food security is an important cornerstone for stable global development. This paper selects 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2022 as the sample interval to explore the impact of environmental regulations on food security and selects the entropy method to conduct a comprehensive measurement of food security. Moreover, the mediating role of technological innovation is discussed, and a spatial panel model is used to analyse the spatial spillover effect of environmental regulations on food security. The main findings are as follows: in the benchmark regression, the coefficient value of environmental regulation is 0.173, which positively promotes the development of food security at the 1% significance level, and the promoting effect is more obvious in the western region. Furthermore, environmental regulations have a significantly positive effect on the coefficient of technological innovation, indicating that technological innovation plays a mediating role. From the perspective of the spatial spillover effect, the environmental regulation coefficient is also significantly positive, indicating that the impact of environmental regulation on food security will influence the development of food security in surrounding areas. The research suggests that local governments should attach greater importance to and supervise environmental governance, combine technological innovation with environmental reform, and better ensure food security.