“Forced Transformation” or “Regulation Capture”—Research on the Interactive Mechanism between Environmental Regulation and Green Transformation of Dairy Farming Subject Production

Under the situation of an increasing resource and environment shortage, the green transformation of dairy farming subject production driven by environmental regulation is the concentrated embodiment of a “promising government” to solve the problem of breeding environmental pollution. Due to the shortcomings of environmental regulation itself and the undefined connotation of the green transformation of dairy farming subject production, the interactive relationship between the two remains unclear at present. Based on defining the concept of green transformation of dairy farming subject production, this paper aims to analyze the interactive mechanism between the environmental regulation and green transformation of dairy farming main production, build a dynamic game model between the environmental regulators and dairy farming subject, and introduce the constraints and benefits of a reputation mechanism on the behavior in the model to explore whether environmental regulation can drive the green transformation of dairy farming subject production. The results showed that the green transformation of dairy farming subject production followed the “subject substitution view” and emphasized “source reduction, process control and terminal treatment”. Strictly designed environmental regulations could effectively drive the green transformation of dairy farming subject production, but it was inevitable that the environmental regulators were vulnerable to the rent-seeking behavior of dairy farming subjects, which was “regulation capture”. The introduction of the reputation mechanism has greatly improved the rent-seeking behavior of dairy farming subjects and the probability that environmental regulators have “regulation capture”, indirectly forcing dairy farming subjects to participate in the green transformation of production. The greater the punishment for dairy farming subjects who do not participate in the green transformation of production was, the more they can be forced to participate in the green transformation of production. At the same time, it also reduces the risk of damage to the credibility of the government. Based on the studies above, this paper also further discussed the shortcomings of environmental regulation itself, including the “re exit and light implementation” of the environmental regulation policy, “decentralization and light inspection” of the environmental regulation subject, “result and light process” of the environmental regulation mode, and “formal regulation and light informal regulation” of the environmental regulation form, which provides a scientific reference for the formulation of the environmental regulation policy of livestock and poultry breeding in the future. Compared with previous studies, this paper is innovative in two aspects: first, it defines the conceptual connotation of a green transformation of dairy farming subject production, and second, it systematically discusses the interaction mechanism between the environmental regulation and green transformation of dairy farming subject production. This paper provides a scientific reference for the development of future environmental regulation policies for livestock and poultry farming.