Leveraging Food Security and Environmental Sustainability in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from a Global Perspective

Abstract

This study investigated the nexus between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective of 63 economies spanning 2010–2021. Different econometric strategies including the Generalized Method of Moments (GMMs), the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLSs), and the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLSs) methods were employed to accomplish the investigation. The empirical outcomes indicate that the coefficients of food export, agricultural production, fertilizer consumption, FDI, population growth, and employment are positively and statistically associated with economic growth but have negative relationships with poverty and unemployment, except for population growth and unemployment, which revealed insignificant results. Conversely, the coefficient of food import revealed a positive association with poverty and unemployment but is negatively associated with economic growth. Additionally, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is also established in the considered countries. Nations, governments, and policymakers must prioritize environmentally friendly economic and green policies that can support sustainable agriculture. International policies to enhance food security collaboration because of nations’ diverse natural endowments to achieve all-level inclusive growth and development must be highly prioritized to reduce global inequality. Innovativeness and the sustainable use of land and processing of food must be encouraged to reduce emissions and other forms of pollution to support eco-fishing, aquaculture, and agriculture in order to ensure food security and achievement of the SDGs.

1. Introduction

The need for countries to grow sustainably has been on target since 2015, immediately after the failure of nations to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Subsequently, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals were set, which were expected to have been achieved globally on or before 2030, while 2050 was considered the target for developing nations [1,2,3,4]. Ever since, scholars, governments, and other stakeholders have been suggesting better and easier ways for these goals to be achieved by all nations. Food security was recently discovered as a dynamic and multifaceted concept, and its achievement has a strong link with inclusive growth, sustainable economic growth, and the achievement of other SDGs. This study suggests that one of the underestimated means through which these goals can easily be achieved is perceived to be through the achievement of food security objectives [2,5,6,7,8]. This study views the achievement of the food security objective as being beyond just ending hunger alone, but also as an important tool that engineers or supports the achievement of other sustainable goals [9,10,11]. Inclusive and sustainable food systems are essential to every economy and a strong tool for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [8,12]. This study avers that a food security policy is crucial to all nations and that critical and in-depth knowledge of food security can serve as an insight to nations in seeing the need to re-direct their resources towards how food security can be a helping hand to achieving the SDGs. Foods are the basics of livelihood and sustenance, without which no system can work perfectly. People’s lives depend on the quality of their food intake. Therefore, people who are well fed are likely to live healthier and happier lives in all ways and probably discharge their duties properly, compared to people without food or who cannot afford at least three-square meals. Therefore, food affordability itself is a motivator that helps boost other sectors and helps companies and nations to achieve their targets. Apart from feeding, food resources and systems are all direct and indirect products from farming and other agricultural works that provide raw materials to many companies and other food industries to attain desired food security and other objectives [11,13,14]. Wastage from foodstuffs and food processing industries can also serve as a source of energy for nations [15].

Another major issue is that food farming is still mainly at a subsistence level in most African countries, and mechanized agriculture that can ensure food security is still given low consideration compared to the population growth rate. These few farmers mostly operate primitively with little or no knowledge of environmental control, thereby attracting high levels of pollution and other environmental degradation [11,14,16]. Care must be taken so that the achievement of one goal or objective will not hinder the achievement of other goals. Therefore, food security objectives must be sustainably undertaken in order to achieve other associated goals, apart from how food security would help to achieve SDGs without undermining environmental quality as well as economic development for sustainable development. Another source of motivation for this study is the recent rise in food inflation and poor environmental management globally, particularly in African and Asian countries. Scholars have revealed that global food security is greatly threatened by population growth, a lack of sustainable agricultural production, a lack of government support leading to subsistence farming, insufficient finance to go into large-scale farming, and climate change, which is expected and estimated to increase by 50% by 2050 [17,18,19]. These problems are more prominent in Africa and Asia compared to developed countries and are strongly associated with the incessant release of GHGs into the atmosphere. Without mincing words, these are serious threats to food security as the possibility exists of more environmental degradation leading to a surge in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that may increase climate changes across the globe, which is likely to happen if urgent actions are not taken [8,12,20,21]. Many developing nations are now over-dependent on food importation from developed countries to feed their citizens, with the commensurate ramifications of the high cost of exchange rates [22]. Lastly, another source of motivation for this study is the negative environmental impact of developing nations, which is far greater than that of developed nations [9,22].

Furthermore, food security and environmental control are essential concerns to be addressed in this globalized and industrialized world in order to keep the environment safe for future generations, avert food crises, and keep the economy growing [16,23]. It must be noted that food security achievement has many positive relationships with various SDGs. Apart from being a motivator and energizer, food also has a direct and strong link to healthy living, work efficiency, personal performance, the survival of people, and companies’ performance [2,9]. Food security is germane as it is multifaceted in nature and interrelated to other SDGs. Moreover, it can help to integrate many other goals and accelerate their achievement for sustainable development [11]. This study considered food insecurity as a major issue that must be fought against because beyond ending hunger, food security aims to achieve zero hunger according to SDG 2. For instance, it helps to create jobs for poverty reduction or eradication and to attain zero poverty through farming and agricultural systems [7,24]. Agriculture employed 1050 million and 884 million people in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 40% and 27% of the global workforce, respectively [11,13]. Any country that wants to survive must aspire to achieve food security for healthy living, as well as a good means of creating more jobs for its citizens with an enabling environment [10]. Furthermore, many agricultural products serve as raw materials to many industrial companies, processing the material to achieve their desired products [16,23,25]. Therefore, achieving food security in a sustainable way would help to eradicate poverty and achieve zero poverty, as stipulated by SDG 1, through employment creation [7,13]. Many nations today have an economic mainstay predominantly based on agricultural production [11]. For instance, Nigeria’s main sources of income used to be from agriculture, which catered to both food crops and cash crops for feeding and export, until the advent of crude oil in the 1960s and 1970s. In [13], it was revealed that a drop in global farming led to a rise in hunger, leaving more than 690 million people undernourished in 2019, which is 60 million more people than in 2014. Why is food security threatened more recently as the world gets closer to 2030? Research has revealed that the highest threats are coming from African and Asian countries [9,13]. Another goal linked to food security is that it promotes good health and well-being, as spelled out by SDG 3. It has been revealed that 80% of healthy living is derived from food intake through daily balanced diets, while food preparation and systems can lead to health issues if not properly guided by good environmental and economic policies by the government [9]. Conversely, as good as food security is to the national and global economies, it also has its ‘bad’ side, which needs to be critically observed and jointly controlled [26]. Research has proven that farming and other agricultural systems contributed significantly to environmental degradation, with up to 25% to 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is a major cause of climate change (SDG 13) [6,8,12,26,27]. This could be through industrial food processing, food supply chains including transportation, and waste disposal of bins. GHG emissions cause climate change that leads to acid rain, which is harmful to greening and in turn destroys farm produce, leading to low farm yield and other environmental damages [24,28]. This environmental impact can be traced back to land preparation and using strong pesticides and herbicides that can affect other ecosystems negatively due to the processing stage [5,27]. Large volumes of materials and products are wasted during production before they get to the consumption stage. In addition, wastage also occurs during trading, transportation, and poor preservation stages, leading to large spoilage and great waste disposal from companies. These and many more factors contribute negatively and significantly to the poor environmental quality around the world [6,26]. Therefore, food production and other components of food systems that make up food security need to be approached scientifically and innovatively for the easy achievement of both the SDGs and environmental sustainability [29,30]. The objective achievement of sustainable food security needs to be given more attention as achieving it would surely lead to the achievement of many SDGs for generations to come.

Apart from GHG emissions, improper waste disposal emanating from industrial wastage and food items can lead to pollution that may negatively affect life below water (SDG 14). The sustainable use of life in the seas, oceans, marines, and rivers may also help to achieve eco-fishing to support aquaculture food security, such as sustainable fishing and other aquatic animals, etc., while preserving ecosystems living in the water [11,31,32]. At the same time, the innovative and sustainable use of land for farming and other agricultural purposes such as cropping and livestock and grassing systems can guarantee food security, reducing air pollution as well as protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems through afforestation, organic manure, green policies, and ‘operation feed your nations’, which will guarantee and preserve life on land (SDG 15) [11,14,28,33]. Food security can also help to ensure industrial production by providing raw materials and increasing consumption through job creation (SDG 12) [9]. This could also be achieved through the industrial production of materials into finished products and reducing poverty to increase consumption rates, with adequate control and policies. Another very important area is to eradicate inequality. This study sees food security achievement as a means of reducing the global dichotomy between developed and developing nations, which can be achieved by eradicating hunger and poverty through job creation. By doing this, inequality among people (SDG 10) would be drastically reduced. The reduction in inequality can only be ensured where there are job opportunities and international food security policies that can eradicate poverty and hunger. Food assurance can then be transformed into a total commitment to work, happiness, innovativeness, and sustainable economic development that can lead to industrialization and the provision of good infrastructure (United Nations, SDG 9). Handling all of these goals sustainably and innovatively would ensure environmental sustainability and access to clean energy (SDG 7) at an affordable price in a reliable and sustainable way. Prior studies have proven that high technology and innovation improve environmental quality [30]. Moreover, it indirectly helps to achieve good and quality education for all (SDG 4) without gender inequality (United Nations, SDG 5). The assurance of food security ensures food availability, which would automatically control food inflation and stimulate a reduction in food prices, and help average parents to afford good and quality education for their children. Food security coordinates all these goals together to help countries achieve inclusive growth and sustainable economic growth and development, as specified by the United Nations in SDG 8. Therefore, food security is a very important objective for any nation that really wants to achieve the SDGs by 2030, or 2050 as specified for African countries and other emerging economies. Both food security and a healthy environment are two strong tools to achieve zero hunger and environmental sustainability as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, or 2050 as projected for developing nations. This has proven that food security is multifaceted in nature and interrelated to almost all of the other SDGs.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the nexus between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective, which remains less explored in the extant literature. This study contributes to the existing body of literature in the following ways. First, this research is among the first empirical studies to explore the linkage between food security, environmental sustainability, sustainable growth, and the Sustainable Development Goals from a global perspective compared to prior studies, which have mainly focused on a regional or country-specific analysis. The motivation of the empirical setting is informed by the present trajectory of the food insecurity concerns witnessed across the globe and the interplay with environmental challenges over time. The choice of the countries selected is also timely and imperative to provide insights into the interconnectedness between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective. Second, existing studies on this strand of the literature have mostly utilized a single measure of sustainable growth, i.e., economic growth, which might bias the outcomes and jeopardize the formulation of effective SDG policies. Hence, this present study utilizes three measures of sustainable growth including economic growth, poverty, and unemployment, which represent a critical gap in the literature in accordance with [34,35], who applied these indicators. Third, this study also contributes econometrically by utilizing comprehensive econometric techniques to address the handling of the endogeneity issue of the lagged outcome variable, controlling for time-invariant country-specific effects and allowing for some degree of endogeneity in other regressors, as well as combining data on cross-individual variations in levels with cross-country variations in changes. Finally, the outcomes of this study provide viable implications for policymakers to implement sustainable growth globally. This research also offers important inputs for policymakers to devise efficient policy strategies to address food insecurity and environmental concerns and achieve sustainable growth on the considered continents.

Hence, this study fills a gap in the literature by adding to the existing body of knowledge. To address the above-established problems, this study examines the impact of food security on some SDGs, economic growth, and environmental sustainability, and establishes the association between food security and SDGs. The remaining parts of this research are arranged as follows: concept development followed by a theoretical and literature review, methodology, results, study implication, and conclusion.

2. Literature Review, Concepts, and Theoretical Review

The impetus to achieve food security as well as environmental quality without undermining economic growth and development has been highly prioritized as a subject of debate by nations recently. Food security and environmental sustainability are two concepts that are directly or indirectly linked to other Sustainable Development Goals [6,14,29,36]. These concepts help to end hunger and provide employment opportunities that can help to achieve zero poverty as well as environmental sustainability with the proper control of pollution, carbon emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions. Food security is a tool through which sustenance and the achievement of the SDGs can be attained for future generations because food security enhances good nutrition, which helps brain development and productivity, and helps in supplying sustainable food to the entire global population [18]. This study provides insight to help various decision-makers, nations, policymakers, governments, investors, companies, and other stakeholders see food security as a major tool to help nations attain various objectives. There is a need to see food security as important to life and to re-direct policies that can help countries across the globe see the need to achieve food security at all costs [37]. The significance of this study is that food security metamorphized to help nations achieve other SDGs and other objectives that are outside the 17 goals. Theoretically, food security, economic growth, and development in relation to environmental control have been widely related to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory [9,27]. The theory connects economic and environmental issues together, as earlier used by other researchers [38,39]. Many leaders of nations have the urge and desire for economic growth and development, but this desire has increased pollution and environmental degradation. However, with adequate policies and regulations in place, sustainable economic growth and development are earned. Therefore, the theory asserts that environmental quality is attained at a turning point where pollution and other environmental damages are at a minimum, in exchange for sustainable food security, economic growth, and development. This affirms an inverted U-shaped relationship existing between economic development and environmental quality. On the other hand, food security and sustainable development are supported by the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals. This study believes that achieving food security at a national level would help global food security targets. Therefore, food security has a strong link with most other SDGs and thereby metamorphized to help in achieving other SDGs [9]. The next aspect of this study is the general review of the related literature.

The study by [9] explored the impact of food security on environmental degradation using GMMs estimation, and the results revealed that the level of environmental damage tends to be higher with higher levels of food security. The authors of [26] studied the impact of livestock on environmental pollution, and the results revealed that livestock farming has contributed to environmental pollution globally. The authors of [40] assessed the demand and supply of food and the role of trade and stock management in achieving food security, and the findings revealed that stock management, price, and distribution enhance food security, while limited producers and the volatility of world markets are major problems facing global food security. The authors of [41] studied the consequences of the global food supply yield gaps, environmental quality, and food security, revealing that the degree of closing yield gaps enhances food security with unclear impacts on environmental quality, but food security influences the quality of the environment. Moreover, ref. [29] investigated bio-fuel impacts on food security in 51 developing countries using GMMs, and revealed a positive and significant relationship between environmental quality and food security. The researchers suggested that improvements in the consumption of bio-fuel increase food security and sustain environmental quality. Furthermore, ref. [42] reviewed the historical trends of crop production in China and examined constraints against increases in crop production, revealing that the challenges facing sciences and technology are major setbacks to environmental quality and protection. The authors of [19] constructed a multi-objective optimization model to ensure food security, environmental protection, and greenhouse gas emission reduction for sustainable development. Their results revealed that it is impossible to achieve the three objectives through the adjustment of chemical fertilizer structures within a short period. Moreover, ref. [12] evaluated the impact and adaptation strategies with a coupled modeling framework, and the result revealed that the impacts of climate change on food security and environmental quality are negatively related. The authors of [27] empirically examined the effect of agricultural development on carbon emissions in Ghana using regression, variance decomposition, and causality analysis. The results revealed a U-shaped relationship between agricultural development and carbon emissions that employed the EKC hypothesis rejection and found Structural Adjustment Programs as a moderating effect. Furthermore, [30] assessed the effect of globalization on the ecological footprint using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach. The results revealed that the effect of globalization on the ecological footprint is positive and technological innovation helps in achieving sustainability. The authors of [33] reviewed the literature on the impact of soil, water, and air quality, suggesting that a majority of results from scholars revealed that intensive agricultural activities negatively impacted all the variables. Moreover, ref. [43] addressed the challenges facing the achievement of sustainable livestock, and suggested a feed technology, a sound business plan, an improved health source, and an improved feed approach. The authors of [32] investigated the relationship between agricultural carbon emission efficiency and food security using the super slack-based model (Super-SBM) and the comprehensive index method. The regression result revealed an inconsistency with a decreasing trend and a significant relationship with relatively stable food security in the region. Moreover, ref. [6] studied food security and environmental sustainability by proposing an efficient strategy to reduce and recycle food loss and waste, and revealed that much food loss and waste occurred at every stage of the supply chain, which threatened food security and environmental sustainability. The authors of [44] studied the environmental implication of remittances to households and economic advancements using FMOLSs, DOLSs, and CCR estimators, with results revealing that remittances, population growth, and energy use contribute to poor ecological quality in Ghana through increases in carbon emissions. Technological innovation does improve ecological quality with bi-directional causality between remittance and C0₂ emissions, with no directional relation with others. Furthermore, ref. [14] presented a systemic analysis of the causes and impacts of environmental costs for China’s cropping and crop-based livestock system on nitrogen management. The results revealed that expansion and intensive livestock production over the last 10 years was a serious cause of direct and indirect air and water pollution, which has posed a major threat to agriculture in China’s environment. The authors of [36] examined the asymmetrical impact of agriculture, fossil fuel consumption, and food security on carbon emissions in Pakistan using the ADF approach, and the outcome revealed a long-term asymmetrical relationship between the variables. Further results showed that increases in population and fossil fuel and carbon emissions worsen environmental standards. Moreover, ref. [37] investigated the effect of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emissions, and the results revealed a negative and insignificant impact on carbon emissions, but EPU showed a positive relationship between environmental regulation and carbon emissions. The authors of [45] explored the link between fossil fuel energy consumption, industrial value added, and carbon emissions in G20 countries using the CS-ARDL estimator, and the results showed that sources of carbon emissions in G20 countries vary slightly in advanced countries compared to emerging countries. Further findings revealed that FDI, R&D, ICT, trade openness, and government expenditure on health and education improve carbon emissions. Furthermore, ref. [23] studied the impact of FDI, urbanization, energy consumption, technological innovation, and financial development on carbon emissions in G8 economies. The findings showed a strong cross-sectional dependency. Further findings revealed a bi-directional causality among trade openness, financial development, economic growth, carbon emissions, and energy use, while a unidirectional causal relationship between carbon emission and FDI was found. The author of [5] examined the role of ecosystem services in rural food security through three dimensions, and the result revealed that the ecosystem supports each of these three dimensions (availability, utilization of food, and access) either directly or indirectly. Moreover, ref. [16] examined the impact of agricultural technologies on carbon emissions using panel ARDL, and the results revealed the existence of cointegration among the variables. Further results revealed that economic growth and pesticides are positively and significantly related to C0₂ emissions in the long run, but only economic growth revealed a positive effect on C0₂ emissions in the short run. The authors of [7] reviewed the impact of climate change on agriculture and the mitigation measures to reduce GHG emissions and further outlined the challenges of feeding 10 billion people in the future. They suggested that countries should continue to embark on policies that would help to mitigate or reduce emission rates. Moreover, ref. [46] identified agriculture, environment, human, and multi-disciplinary studies as the factors influencing climate changes that are adversely affecting Nigeria’s environment. The study was conducted through a systematic standard and bibliographic review approach to analyze trends of past studies on climate change. The authors of [47] studied the impact of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emissions using the PMG-ARDL modeling approach and revealed that the world uncertainty index affects CO₂ emissions in both the short run and the long run. Furthermore, ref. [28] studied the extent to which CO₂ emission reduction, bio-energy production, and afforestation affect food security and agricultural market conditions. The results revealed that afforestation impacts food security and non-carbon emission policies such as emission taxes are a major risk of hunger in 2050. Moreover, ref. [48] examined the impact of population growth, ecological footprint, energy consumption, and natural resources on CO₂ emissions using GMMs, GLMs, and Robust Least Squares, and the findings revealed an inverse relationship between renewable energy consumption and natural resources with CO₂ emissions and ecological footprint. Further results showed that population growth and non-renewable energy consumption improve environmental quality, while non-renewable energy consumption increases environmental degradation. The authors of [49] studied and analyzed the relationship between the effect of agricultural carbon emission reduction and agricultural product supply in order to predict the decomposing state of agricultural products. The results revealed that green technology innovation, agricultural carbon emission, and product supply in China have significant spatial differences auto-correlated with an inverted U-shaped relationship. Moreover, ref. [2] promoted a water–energy–food nexus as a strong conceptual tool for achieving sustainable development, and suggested that accounting for food–energy–water provided a strong nexus between livelihood and sustainable development. Furthermore, ref. [50] developed an integrated model relating to food security for predictive analysis to meet both current and future socioeconomic demands for sustainable development. Their study revealed that the model was capable of solving multi-period socioeconomic problems and predicting future managerial problems.

The general findings from the literature revealed that extant studies on food security, economic growth, and environmental sustainability are few, and the majority are non-empirical. Many prior studies revealed that food security influences environmental quality by contributing to environmental degradation [6,9,14,26]. It was discovered that food security that helps to grow sustainably without undermining environmental quality, as well as economic development for sustainable development, is difficult to attain [19]. This has generated intense discord that needs urgent attention in the world literature [11,19,22,29], which necessitated this research work. No researchers have conducted an in-depth study on the relationship between food security and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, based on this study’s literature review findings. Studies on food security tend towards economic growth, the water–energy–food nexus, and the environment, and their findings have been mixed in the world literature. While some scholars found positive relationships, others found negative results [2,32,50]. Meanwhile, many scholars found that the achievement of food security destroys the environment, while others are of the opinion that the achievement of food security with advanced agricultural technology and innovation with good policies and regulations improves environmental quality [16,23]. However, there seems to be consensus that food security boosts economic growth and development [5,8], although many studies in this class are non-empirical [36,50]. In addition, prior studies on food security and environmental sustainability generally have mixed results, which this study clarifies by adding to the body of knowledge in this regard. Food security helps to grow sustainability by helping and strengthening various means of achieving other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [9]. The next stage of this study is the graphical representation of how food security is related to the SDGs.

The Figure 1 depicts how food security is related to many SDGs. This study classified these goals into primary goals, which are interpreted to be strongly related to food security; goals under the secondary group are also directly related to food security but with good policy implications; and goals under the last group are indirectly related to food security.

3. Data and Method

3.1. Data

This research analyzes the linkage between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth using the annual dataset of 63 selected countries spanning 2010–2021. The choice of the time frame and country selection was primarily dictated by the availability of data. The outcome variable of interest is sustainable growth captured by three measures including GDP (current USD) as a proxy of economic growth, unemployment, and poverty proxied by the poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population). The motivation for this choice of comprehensive measures stems from [34,35], who applied these indicators. The explanatory variables of interest include food export, food import, CO₂ as a proxy for environmental indicators, population growth, fertilizer consumption (% of fertilizer production as a measure of fertilizer consumption), agriculture production, FDI (% of GDP), and employment in services (% of total employment) as a proxy for employment. The dataset employed in this research was compiled from the World Development Indicators (WDI).

Table 1. Summary of descriptive statistics and the correlation matrix.

Variables	GDP	UNE	POV	FIM	FEX	CO2	POP	FER	AGR	FDI	EMP
Mean	4.06 × 108	19,300.46	60.520	56,805,734	68,778,227	1.616 × 108	8,202,935	7.13 × 1010	715.534	2.21 × 109	3.57 × 1010
Median	2.373	27.452	64.667	11.496	0.941	9.370	111.203	308,635.1	7.785	9.040	83.210
Max	2.06 × 1010	69.040	81.480	4.58 × 1010	7.78 × 1010	1.16 × 1010	49,620.57	1.58 × 1012	5.576	4.82 × 1010	1.03 × 1011
Min	24.094	7.592	0.220	0.564	18.692	2.281	0.200	2.512	8189.006	0.608	1.700
Std. Dev	2.76 × 109	109.005	16.815	4.34 × 108	6.28 × 108	1.30 × 1010	4281.270	2.63 × 1011	5.95 × 108	8.35 × 109	1.53 × 1010
J. Bera	137.769	90.536	161.555	123.533	379.396	28.938	4618.196	1175.563	127.908	155.178	21.801
Prob	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Correlation Matrix
GDP	1.000
UNE	−0.126	1.000
POV	−0.500	1.176	1.000
FIM	−0.019	−0.023	−0.156	1.000
FEX	0.116	0.096	0.069	0.052	1.000
CO2	−0.023	−0.021	−0.442	0.312	0.115	1.000
POP	−0.157	−0.133	−0.045	−0.015	−0.120	−0.186	1.000
FER	0.910	0.901	0.220	−0.035	−0.029	−0.337	−0.321	1.000
AGR	0.205	0.024	−0.135	−0.183	−0.153	0.173	−0.020	−0.038	1.000
FDI	0.389	0.907	0.083	−0.034	−0.029	−0.029	0.874	0.072	0.053	1.000
EMP	−0.034	0.809	0.194	0.030	0.025	−0.025	0.894	−0.032	0.983	1.000	1.000

Source: Authors’ computation. Note: GDP—economic growth, UNE—unemployment, POV—poverty, FIM—food import, FEX—food export, CO₂—environmental degradation, POP—population growth, FER—fertilizer consumption, AGR—agriculture production, FDI—foreign direct investment, and EMP—employment.

displays the descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of the variables under scrutiny. The analysis shows wide variability among the variables as the data are dispersed around their mean. The mean values of economic growth, unemployment, and poverty are 4.06 × 10⁸, 1930 0.46, and 60.520, with a standard deviation of 2.76 × 10⁹, 109.005, and 16.815, respectively. Furthermore, the averages of food import, food export, CO₂, population growth, fertilizer consumption, agriculture production, FDI, and employment are 56,805.734, 687.782, 1.61 × 10⁸, 8202935, 7.13 × 10¹⁰, 715.534, 2.21 × 10⁹, and 3.57 × 10¹⁰, respectively. The standard deviation analysis shows wide variability in all the variables except poverty and employment. The normality status of all the variables under study was ascertained via Jarque Bera statistics, which show that all the variables are not normally distributed, leading to the acceptance of the null hypothesis of no normal distribution. The lower panel of Table 1 also presents the correlation analysis. All the explanatory variables are almost positively correlated with GDP, but they are negatively correlated with other indicators of sustainable growth. Additionally, the analysis displays no evidence of potential multicollinearity among the variables, given that the values of all the variables are moderately low.

3.2. Theoretical Model and Empirical Tests

This research specifies the reduced-form equation to estimate the linkages between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective as follows:

$${GDP}_{it}={\alpha }_0+{\beta }_1{FOD}_{it}+{\beta }_2{ENV}_{it}+{\vartheta }_j{InX}_{it}+u_t$$

(1)

where i = 1…75 and t = 2010…2021; ${GDP}_{it}$ represents the dependent variables comprising economic growth, unemployment, and poverty; ${FOD}_{it}$ denotes food security; ${ENV}_{it}$ signifies environmental sustainability; $X_{it}$ represents the vector of other remaining explanatory variables; ${\alpha }_0$ is the constant; ${\beta }_i$ represents the unknown coefficients; ${\vartheta }_j$ stands for coefficients of other explanatory variables; and $u_t$ is the error term.

This study further assesses the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by examining the non-linear impact of environmental degradation on sustainable growth. Equation (1) is augmented with the squared term of environmental degradation and specifies the model as follows:

$${GDP}_{it}={\alpha }_0+{\beta }_1{FOD}_{it}+{\beta }_2{ENV}_{it}+{\beta }_3{ENV}_{it}^2+{\vartheta }_j{InX}_{it}+u_t$$

(2)

Based on Equation (2), the nexus between environmental degradation and sustainable growth is considered an inverted U-shape, given ${\beta }_2>0$ and ${\beta }_3<0$. This assertion highlights that the environmental degradation variables have a significant inverse U-shaped connection with sustainable growth, suggesting that economic growth surges at a lower level of environmental degradation, but after certain thresholds of environmental degradation, economic growth declines. On the other hand, the connectedness between the variables is assumed to be U-shaped given that ${\beta }_2<0$ and ${\beta }_3>0$, implying that economic growth declines at a lower level of environmental degradation, but after a certain level of environmental degradation, economic growth expands.

In addition, the research deploys the Generalized Method of Moments (GMMs) put forward by [51,52] to explore the relationship between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth in the global analysis. The technique is appropriate for this investigation due to its unique features. The GMMs technique is recognized as a reliable and consistent estimate for addressing the different methodological difficulties of previous studies, which failed to consider the issues of measurement errors, omitted variable bias, and reverse causality, among others. The technique is most appropriate for this study considering the short time span and the different cross-sections of countries in this research. The GMMs approach is an improvement on the traditional fixed effect and OLS techniques, which are often fraught with biased outcomes when there is a potential correlation between lagged dependent variables and idiosyncratic error terms. The GMMs technique also simultaneously resolves the endogeneity issue and the problem of unobserved intercept heterogeneity. In addition, ref. [53] noted that standard fixed effects estimators are biased when lagged dependent variables are present as regressors and that the technique takes possible endogeneity into account. Finally, the Sargan test of over-identifying restrictions is used to evaluate the validity of the lagged variables as instruments, as is the second-order serial correlation test, which hypothesizes that the error term is uncorrelated.

This study also deploys the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLSs) technique developed by [54] and the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLSs) method proposed by [55] as robustness checks. These techniques are deemed appropriate for examining the cointegration panel relationships among the variables, and they consider serial correlation, cross-sectional heterogeneity, and potential endogeneity issues among the variables.

3.3. Empirical Results

This empirical analysis begins by checking the stationarity nature of the variables under consideration using the [56,57] panel unit root tests.

Table 2. Panel unit root test outcomes.

	LLC	LLC	IPS	IPS
	Level	First Difference	Level	First Difference
GDP	−0.656	−2.356 **	−0.779	−3.461 *
UNE	−0.744	−5.669 *	−0.215	−4.660 *
POV	−0.45	−3.128 *	−1.281	−6.269*
FIM	−0.863	−3.451 *	−0.749	−4.102 *
FEX	−3.401 *	−6.071 *	−3.252	−6.111 *
CO2	−1.782	−5.891 *	−1.614	−5.742 *
CO22	−0.125	−3.546 *	−0.396	−3.671 *
POP	−1.312	−4.181 *	−1.24	−4.640*
FER	−1.092	−3.857 *	−1.927	−3.617 *
AGR	−0.733	−3.906 *	−0.821	−3.997 *
FDI	−3.234 *	−5.453 *	−3.096*	−5.686 *
EMP	−1.221	−5.181*	−1.103	−4.8858

Note: **, and * indicate significance at 5%, and 1%, respectively. The values in parenthesis are the probability.

displays the panel unit root test outcomes. The findings highlighted that all the variables contain unit root at level, except food export and foreign direct investment (FDI). Nevertheless, all the variables become stationary after taking the first difference.

The next step in the empirical analysis involves checking the potential long-term cointegration relationships among the variables using the cointegration tests developed by [54,58]. The Pedroni cointegration test consists of seven test statistics, including the Panel v-statistics, Panel rho-statistics, Panel PP-statistics, Panel ADF-statistics, Group rho-statistics, Group PP-statistics, and Group ADF-statistics.

Table 3. Panel cointegration tests.

Test Statistics	1	2	3
Panel v-statistics	−0.937	−0.663	1.721
Panel rho-statistics	0.314	1.739	2.559
Panel PP-statistics	−5.183 *	−8.017 *	−4.185 *
Panel ADF-statistics	−7.248 *	−10.483 *	−6.382 *
Group rho-statistics	3.938	4.372	5.183
Group PP-statistics	−5.291*	−3.334 **	−2.926 ***
Group ADF-statistics	−5.188 *	−4.190 *	−3.137 **
Kao ADF t-statistics	−4.051 *	−3.047 *	−4.211 *

Note: ***, **, and * indicate significance at 10%, 5%, and 1%, respectively. The values in parenthesis are the probability.

displays the outcomes of the cointegration tests, which include three models, each featuring economic growth, unemployment, and poverty as dependent variables, respectively. The results of the Pedroni cointegration test reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration, suggesting the presence of a long-term relationship among the variables. Similarly, the Kao cointegration test provides evidence of cointegration among the variables. In conclusion, the cointegration test results support the existence of long-term equilibrium linkages among the variables under investigation.

This study proceeds with an examination of the linkages between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective using a GMMs strategy.

Table 4. GMMs results.

Dep.Var	GDP	UNE	POV
${GDP}_{it-1}$	0.103(0.004) *	0.858(0.004) *	0.431(0.062) ***
FIM	−0.462(0.025) **	0.186(0.000) *	0.679(0.013) **
FEX	0.196(0.000) *	−0.431(0.000) *	−0.264(0.000) *
CO2	0.185(0.024) **	0.378(0.024) **	0.399(0.010)*
CO22	−0.028(0.073) ***
POP	0.396(0.468)	−0.495(0.130)	−0.115(0.529)
FER	0.169(0.020) **	−0.127(0.000) *	−0.503(0.000) *
AGR	0.137(0.001) *	−0.945(0.000) *	−0.381(0.009) *
FDI	0.573(0.028) **	−0.210(0.048) **	−0.154(0.037) **
EMP	0.114(0.031) **	−0.142(0.110)	−0.126(0.391)
AR(1)	0.005	0.009	0.002
AR(2)	0.638	0.314	0.189
Sargan test	10.297	15.174	9.391

Note: ***, **, and * indicate significance at 10%, 5%, and 1%, respectively. The values in parenthesis are the probability.

displays the empirical results with economic growth, unemployment, and poverty as dependent variables. The results show that the estimated coefficients on lagged economic growth, poverty, and unemployment are positive and statistically significant across the models, suggesting that past economic performance, poverty, and unemployment impact the current levels of economic growth, poverty, and unemployment. The findings also indicate that the coefficients of food imports are positively associated with poverty and unemployment, but negatively associated with economic growth. This finding suggests that a 1% increase in food imports is associated with a rise in poverty and unemployment by 0.186% and 0.679% and a decline in economic growth by 0.462%. This outcome demonstrates that rising global food imports generate unemployment and worsen the balance of payments (BOP), reducing the economic performance and welfare of the people in the analyzed countries. The finding further suggests that increasing food imports has an adverse impact on the growth performance and well-being of the citizens of the considered countries. This evidence is an indication that improving the food supply chain is critical to alleviating the food insecurity menace across the globe. The result is consistent with the findings of [59,60], who uncovered similar outcomes in their investigations. Conversely, the estimated coefficients of food export have a positive impact on economic growth but are negatively related to unemployment and poverty. Specifically, a 1% increase in food exports is associated with a decrease in poverty and unemployment by 0.431% and 0.264% and a rise in economic growth by 0.196%. Based on these results, increasing the exportation of food resolves BOP concerns and reduces over-reliance on imports of food, thus improving the sustainability of the countries analyzed. The finding also implies that channeling available resources to areas of comparative advantage and specialization, particularly in the food production sector, increases terms of trade and thus economic growth. This result corroborates the evidence of [21,61,62].

Furthermore, the results indicate that the estimated CO₂ coefficients exert negative effects on economic growth and are positively related to poverty and unemployment. This result implies that a 1% rise in environmental degradation leads to a decrease in economic growth, poverty, and unemployment by 0.185%, 0.399%, and 0.378%, respectively. This outcome demonstrates that rising environmental degradation exerts an adverse impact on agricultural output, decreasing the productivity of labor and thereby inhibiting the sustainable growth of the analyzed countries. This outcome also implies that environmental degradation concerns matter for the growth trajectory and welfare of the analyzed countries. The finding aligns with the findings of [63,64], who confirmed similar results. The estimated coefficients of FDI are positively associated with economic growth but have a negative relationship with poverty and unemployment. Specifically, a 1% surge in FDI reduces poverty and unemployment rates by 0.154% and 0.210% and increases economic growth by 0.578%. This finding shows that increasing FDI encourages foreign investors to invest in domestic investment, which enhances job opportunities, technology transfer, and the export base, thus enhancing the growth and welfare of the countries studied. This result is consistent with the outcomes of [15,64,65,66] but contradicts the findings of [67,68].

Similarly, the estimated coefficients of population growth are positively insignificant in relation to economic growth but negatively insignificant with regard to poverty and unemployment. The insignificance of the outcome could be attributed to the demographic concerns ravaging the globe, particularly in the developing countries of the analyzed sample of countries. The coefficients of fertilizer consumption have a positive impact on economic growth but a negative association with poverty and unemployment. Specifically, a 1% rise in fertilizer consumption reduces poverty and unemployment rates by 0.503% and 0.127% and increases economic growth by 0.169%. The finding surmises that increasing fertilizer usage enhances the cultivation and productivity of agricultural output, ensures food security, and thereby improves the economic performance and well-being of individuals in the analyzed countries. This finding highlights the need for increased provision of adequate chemical fertilizers in the analyzed countries to ensure sustainable growth and development. The evidence corroborates the work of [69], who found similar outcomes. Additionally, the estimated coefficients of agricultural production are positively related to economic growth but negatively associated with poverty and unemployment. This result suggests that a 1% rise in agriculture production reduces poverty and unemployment rates by 0.381% and 0.945% and increases economic growth by 0.137%. This finding reflects that increased investment in agricultural development reduces food insecurity and generates more employment opportunities, thereby increasing economic growth and improving welfare. This outcome shows that agricultural financing needs to be reinforced in the analyzed countries in order to promote sustainable growth, and validates the studies of [24,70,71], who reported similar findings. The estimated coefficients of employment are positively significant with economic growth but negatively insignificant with poverty and unemployment. This finding implies that a 1% increase in employment improves economic growth by 0.114%. The positive finding on employment suggests that increasing employment in a crucial segment of the economy generates employment opportunities and thus increases economic growth in the analyzed countries. This outcome is consistent with the results of [72,73,74,75], who uncovered similar findings. Lastly, Arellano–Bond tests for the serial correlation test AR (2) and Hansen J-tests are used to assess the validity of the instruments used in the GMMs technique. The outcomes show that the null hypothesis for the models was rejected, suggesting the absence of second-order serial correlation and that the models are appropriately specified.

Regarding the validity of the EKC hypothesis, this outcome shows that the estimated coefficient of CO₂ as a proxy of environmental degradation exhibits a positively significant relationship with economic growth, while the squared coefficient of CO₂ establishes a negative relationship with economic growth. This result implies that economic growth rises at lower levels of environmental degradation but declines after a certain threshold of environmental degradation has been reached. Therefore, environmental degradation and economic growth follow an inverted U-shaped pattern, supporting the EKC hypothesis. There appears to be a tendency for economies to prioritize improvements in economic performance regardless of the level of environmental degradation witnessed in these economies. These results align with those reported by [76,77,78] in their respective studies.

This study further utilized the FMOLSs and DOLSs techniques to verify the consistency of the GMMs outcomes.

Table 5. FMOLSs and DOLSs outcomes.

Dep. Var	GDP	UNE	POV
FMOLSs
FIM	−0.429(0.021) **	0.133(0.000) *	−0.213(0.000) *
FEX	0.214(0.000) *	−0.154(0.082) ***	−0.466(0.031) **
CO2	0.447(0.009) *	0.375(0.050) **	0.109(0.081) ***
CO22	−0.138(0.046) **
POP	−0.516(0.218)	0.310(0.648)	0.187(0.262)
FER	0.221(0.005) *	−0.168(0.042) **	0.108(0.000) *
AGR	0.592(0.071) ***	−0.315(0.000) *	−0.140(0.037) **
FDI	0.107(0.000) *	−0.487(0.000) *	−0.172(0.044) **
EMP	0.249(0.000) *	−0.612(0.053) **	−0.296(0.000) *
R2	0.736	0.811	0.583
DOLSs
FIM	−0.110(0.048) **	0.186(0.022) **	0.586(0.000) *
FEX	0.451(0.000)	−0.231(0.079) ***	−0.275(0.031) **
CO2	0.239(0.063) ***	0.109(0.000) *	0.684(0.050) **
CO22	−0.184(0.021) **
POP	0.610(0.146)	0.187(0.372)	0.257(0.421)
FER	0.386(0.000) *	−0.247(0.017) **	−0.185(0.000) *
AGR	0.711(0.026) **	−0.321(0.004) *	−0.176(0.011) **
FDI	0.213(0.000)	−0.267(0.042) **	−0.225(0.078) ***
EMP	0.141(0.056) **	−0.844(0.000) *	−0.115(0.021) **
R2	0.674	0.713	0.592

Note: ***, **, and * indicate significance at 10%, 5%, and 1%, respectively. The values in parenthesis are the probability.

presents the outcomes of FMOLSs and DOLSs approaches. The findings of the methods also affirm that food export, fertilizer consumption, agriculture production, foreign direct investment, population, and employment are positively related to economic growth, but negatively associated with unemployment and poverty. Conversely, food import is negatively associated with economic growth but positively related to unemployment and poverty. Regarding the EKC variables, the results show that the estimated coefficients of environmental degradation and squared environmental degradation exhibit positive and negative relationships with economic growth, respectively. In summary, the findings of the FMOLSs and DOLSs approaches align with the outcomes of the GMMs approach but differ in terms of significance.

4. Discussion

This study critically examined the impact of food security on some SDGs, economic growth, and environmental sustainability. To achieve this, the relationship between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable economic growth and development was empirically examined. Generally, the results show that the estimated coefficients on lagged economic growth, poverty, and unemployment are positively and statistically significant across the models, suggesting that past economic performance, poverty, and unemployment influence the current level of economic growth, poverty, and unemployment. This then implies that the present states of the economies of those selected nations would automatically determine their future performances [31]. This may further suggest that current policies on food–water–energy create large employment opportunities and can help to guarantee food security that can lead to economic growth and later transform into sustainable development for future generations. Specifically, the findings also indicate that the coefficients of food imports are positively associated with poverty and unemployment but negatively associated with economic growth. Excessive food importation is a pure indication of food insecurity that influences a nation’s rate of food imports. This result is an indication that food importation is detrimental to sustainable development as revealed by poverty, unemployment, and economic growth as indicators for SDGs. Countries that depend solely on foreign foods, such as Nigeria, destroy their economies and are liable to face greater poverty and unemployment than those countries with food security. This finding further suggests that increasing food imports has an adverse impact on the growth performance and well-being of the citizens of the considered countries. For instance, this result may be related to daily rising food costs, exchange rates, cost of living, and inflation that worsen purchasing power and the standard of living of people, and consequently negatively affect the quality of food intake by citizens, thereby leading to inequality among nations that negates SDG 10. This evidence is an indication that improving local food production, supply chains, and distributions is crucial in alleviating poverty to achieve zero poverty (SDG 1) and zero hunger (SDG 2) across the globe. This result may also suggest less environmental degradation since foods are majorly imported and not produced within the country, which may not have much environmental impact on the receiving country. This result affirmed the relationship of food security with some Sustainable Development Goals, economic growth, and its possible impact on environmental quality. The result is consistent with the findings of [59,60], who uncovered similar outcomes in their investigations.

Conversely, the estimated coefficients of food export have a positive impact on economic growth but are negatively related to unemployment and poverty. Food exportation is a sign of food security, but might not fully achieve food security objectives. This evidence is an indication that improving local food production, supply chains, and distribution is crucial in alleviating poverty to achieve zero poverty and zero hunger across the globe. This also suggests a significant reduction in hunger as the agricultural and food sectors of any economy constitute a significant part and good sources of employment opportunities for nations. This aligns with [9], who states that food security ensures sustainable food production, the provision of industrial raw materials, and increased consumption through job creation (SDG 12) to reduce unemployment. Based on these results, increasing the exportation of food resolves BOP concerns and reduces an over-reliance on imports of food, thus improving the sustainability of the countries analyzed. The finding also implies that channeling available resources to areas of comparative advantage and specialization, particularly in the food production sector, increases terms of trade and thus economic growth. Conversely, this finding could serve as a caution to every nation as achieving food security without solid environmental control policies contributes to environmental degradation, as well as GHG emissions, which is a major cause of climate change (SDG 13) that is detrimental to food production. This result corroborates the evidence of [6,21,27,61,62]. Additionally, the estimated coefficients of agricultural production are positively related to economic growth but negatively associated with poverty and unemployment. This finding reflects that increased investment in agricultural development reduces food insecurity, which indicates that agricultural development contributes to achieving zero hunger and obtaining food at affordable prices, and it also helps citizens to consume good quality food. The consumption of good food at affordable prices in turn promotes good health and well-being (SDG 3). This finding also suggests that sustainable agriculture guarantees global food security and generates more employment opportunities through agro-allied and food industries, thereby increasing economic growth and improving welfare. Moreover, industries that depend on agricultural products to survive can obtain their materials at very low prices. Furthermore, achieving food security through sustainable agricultural production needs to be supported with solid environmental control policies for sustainable food production to be achieved. Conversely, improper waste disposal emanating from agricultural products, industrial wastage, and food items can lead to pollution that may negatively affect life below water (SDG 14). Sustainable use of life in the seas, oceans, marines, and rivers may also be affected. This result also supports eco-fishing to support aquaculture, food security for sustainable fishing and other aquatic animals, etc., while preserving other ecosystems living in the water, which are major components that determine food security. This outcome shows that agricultural financing needs to be reinforced in the analyzed countries in order to promote sustainable growth. This outcome validates the findings of [24,70,71,72,73] who reported similar findings.

The coefficients on fertilizer consumption have a positive impact on economic growth, but a negative association with poverty and unemployment. By implication, this increases food production, which may possibly be raw materials for many industries that can transform into economic growth and development by creating employment that can reduce poverty and hunger. This finding surmise that increasing fertilizer usage enhances the cultivation and productivity of agricultural output, ensures food security, and thereby improves the economic performance and well-being of individuals in the analyzed countries. This finding highlights the need for the increased provision of adequate chemical fertilizers in the analyzed countries to ensure sustainable growth and development. The evidence corroborates the findings of [69], who found similar outcomes. Furthermore, the results indicate that estimated CO₂ coefficients exert negative effects on economic growth and are positively related to poverty and unemployment. By implication, poor environmental control, which could have resulted from increasing carbon emissions and GHGs emanating from growing economic development, is a serious threat to the survival and sustainability of future generations. This result suggests that poor environmental health may lead to high rates of climate change, which may lead to low food production and thus hinder the achievement of food security and environmental quality. This may further hinder the achievement of many SDGs and economic growth if urgent and adequate action is not taken. Moreover, it may also infer that rising environmental degradation exerts an adverse impact on agricultural output, decreasing the productivity of labor and thereby inhibiting the economic growth and welfare of the analyzed countries. This outcome also implies that environmental degradation concerns matter for the growth trajectory and welfare of the analyzed countries. The finding aligns with the results of [7,49,63,64], who confirmed similar results.

The estimated coefficients of FDI are positively associated with economic growth but have a negative relationship with poverty and unemployment. This finding shows that increasing FDI encourages global foreign investors to invest in domestic investment, which enhances job opportunities, technology transfer, reduction in hunger, poverty, inequality, and other international dichotomies, and improves the export base, thus enhancing the growth and welfare of the countries studied. By implication, FDI is a strong determinant of economic performance and international trade flows, as well as the distribution of scarce goods and services, including food to ensure food security and, above all, it is a strong measure of the level of readiness of nations towards the achievement of the SDGs. This implies that FDI encourages local industries and aids the production, distribution, and marketing of agricultural products to reduce wastage from food production to consumption. This result is consistent with the outcomes of [15,64,65,66] but contradicts the findings of [67,68]. Similarly, the estimated coefficients of population growth revealed a positive relationship with economic growth and a negative relationship with poverty and unemployment, but insignificant results with all models were revealed. By implication, this result shows that good policies that can help the economy to grow alongside population growth are very important for the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved. This insignificance may imply that if governments plan well with good policies, the growth of a population may be immaterial to economic growth, poverty levels, and unemployment rates. For instance, population does not have a negative impact on the US economy because of good policies and plans for future generations. Most African nations lack this foresight, which has been a source of setbacks for them. Nations’ population growth rates need to be subjected to serious demographic control and should be monitored for policies on the food security objective to be achieved. Simultaneously, as the population grows, food production and environmental control policies must be improved for inclusive growth and sustainable economic growth and development to be attained (SDG 8). This supports [17,19,49], who found that population growth is a major threat to global food security, the economy, and sustainability. The estimated coefficients of employment are positively significant with economic growth but negatively insignificant with poverty and unemployment. The positive finding on employment suggests that increasing employment in a crucial segment of the economy generates employment opportunities and thus increases economic growth in the analyzed countries. It then implies that the agricultural, food, and industrial sectors are very important segments of the economy that ensure strong economic growth and food security. Employment opportunity is closely related to a growing economy and to ending hunger (SDG 2) as it is a source of finance that enables people to afford food and other basics of life. For any nation with low unemployment, the poverty rate tends to be very low (SDG 1) with very low inequality (SDG 3). Consequently, this must be backed up with very strong environmental policies to ensure control and good environmental quality for future generations. This outcome is consistent with the results of [74,75], who uncovered similar findings.

The EKC result depicts that environmental degradation and economic growth follow an inverted U-shaped pattern, supporting the EKC hypothesis. There appears to be a tendency for economies to prioritize improvements in economic performance, regardless of the level of environmental degradation witnessed in these economies. These results align with those reported by [64,76,78] in their respective studies. In summary, a 1% increase in food imports is associated with a rise in poverty and unemployment by 0.186% and 0.679% and a decline in economic growth by 0.462% as indicators of SDGs. This implies that food importation is not sustainable for any nation. Depending solely on the importation of food to feed the nation is detrimental to a nation’s growth and development. Nations leaders can only employ it as a short-term decision [59,60]. Conversely, a 1% increase in food exports is associated with a decrease in poverty and unemployment by 0.431% and 0.264% and a rise in economic growth by 0.196%. Nations should ensure food security and prioritize sustainable agriculture that guarantees food export as it has a strong connection to achieving SDGs [21,61,62]. Specifically, a 1% surge in FDI reduces poverty and unemployment rates by 0.154% and 0.210% and increases economic growth by 0.578%. This implies that FDI should be encouraged by countries around the world as FDI technological innovations can be transferred that ensure sustainable development [15,51,63,64]. This result also suggests that a 1% rise in agriculture production reduces poverty and unemployment rates by 0.381% and 0.945% and increases economic growth by 0.137%. Through FDI, technological innovations that can help improve sustainable agriculture can be introduced to ensure sustainable development [24,70,71,72,73,79].

5. Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

This study considered leveraging food security and environmental sustainability in achieving sustainable development. This was conducted by examining the influence of food security on the achievement of some SDGs, economic growth, and the environmental quality of 63 countries across the globe. This study provides a deeper understanding of food security, its importance to nations, and how the concept can help achieve over 13 out of the 17 SDGs. This study is a source of motivation to nations and establishes that food security is much more important than the general belief of ending hunger. This study helps to convey that food security is a driver to achieving many other Sustainable Development Goals. This research utilized a yearly panel dataset of 63 selected countries covering the period 2010–2021 to examine the nexus between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth from a global perspective. This study extended the need to achieve food security among nations. Inclusive and sustainable food systems are essential to every economy and a strong tool for achieving the following Sustainable Development Goals: Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 17. Food security coordinates all of these goals together to help countries achieve inclusive growth and sustainable economic growth and development. General findings revealed that the estimated coefficient on the lagged economic growth, poverty, and unemployment as a measure of SDGs is positively and statistically significant across all models. These findings suggest that past economic performance, poverty, and unemployment influence the present, and the present would influence future performances, sustainable economic growth, and development. Further findings revealed that the coefficients of food export, agricultural production, fertilizer consumption, FDI, population growth, and employment are positively and statistically associated with economic growth, but have negative relationships with poverty and unemployment, except population growth and unemployment, which revealed insignificant results. Conversely, the coefficient of food import revealed a positive association with poverty and unemployment but was negatively associated with economic growth. On the contrary, the carbon emissions coefficient showed a negative impact on economic growth, but a positive relationship with poverty and unemployment. The result has affirmed the relationship of food security with some sustainable development goals, economic growth, and its possible impact on environmental quality. Hence, the nexus between food security, environmental sustainability, and sustainable growth is confirmed. Generally, the results revealed that food security is a very important objective for any nation that really wants to achieve the SDGs by 2030, or 2050 as specified for African countries and other emerging economies. This has proven that food security is multifaceted in nature and interrelated to almost all other SDGs. This study provides insight and can guide nations, governments, policymakers, international institutions, and other stakeholders in their various decision-making endeavors. Leaders of nations, governments, and policymakers must prioritize environmentally friendly economic policies that can support sustainable agriculture. Having seen that food security is very important to the achievement of so many SDGs, it must be given the utmost priority for all-level inclusive growth and development. Innovativeness and the sustainable use of land and processing of food must be encouraged to reduce emissions, GHGs, and other forms of pollution in order to support eco-fishing, aquaculture, and agriculture, thus ensuring food security and the achievement of the SDGs. Therefore, advanced agricultural technology and innovation, good policy regulations, and improved environmental quality to support food security must be practiced.