This research aimed to investigate heterogeneity regarding governance, agricultural productivity, and food security between developed and developing nations. Utilizing a three-stage least squares (3SLS) simultaneous equation model, this study found that governance could positively impact food security through capital accumulation and agricultural productivity in both developed and developing countries. However, the magnitude of these effects differed significantly between country groups, with developed countries showing stronger governance-food security linkages than developing countries. This study reaffirms the importance of governance while showcasing its potential to vary based on a country’s economic level. Additionally, it sheds comprehensive light on impacts of agricultural production and agricultural capital accumulation on food security.

The frequency analysis and the probability plot were applied to heavy metal contents of soils collected from the Goseong Cu mine area as a statistic method for the determination of the threshold value which was able to partition a population comprising largely dispersed heavy metal contents into the background and the anomalous populations. Almost all the heavy metal contents of soil showed a positively skewed distributions and their cumulative percentage frequencies plotted as a curved lines on logarithmic probability plot which represent a mixture of two or more overlapping populations. Total Cu, Pb and Cd data and extractable Cu and Pb data could be partitioned into background and anomalous populations by using the inflection in each curve. The others showed a normally distributed population or an largely overlapped populations. The threshold values obtained from replotted frequency distributions with the partitioned populations were Cu 400 mg/kg, Pb 450 mg/kg and Cd 3.5 mg/kg in total contents and Cu 40 mg/kg and Pb 12 mg/kg in extractable contents, respectively. The thresholds for total contents are much higher than the tolerable level of soil pollution proposed by Kloke(Cu 100 mg/kg, Pb 100 mg/kg, Cd 3 mg/kg), but those for extractable contents are not exceeded the worrying level of soil pollution proposed by Ministry of Environment(Cu 50 mg/kg, Pb 100 mg/kg). When the threshold values were used as the criteria of soil pollution in the study area, 9～19% of investigated soil population was in polluted level. The spatial distributions of heavy metal contents greater than threshold values showed that polluted soils with heavy metals are restricted within the mountain soils in the vicinity of abandoned mines.