Towards a Win-Win Solution for Dietary Health and Carbon Reduction—Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
- The paper has an excellent scientific sound!
Author Response
Thanks for being with us.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article ‘’ How to Change Food Consumption Structure to Achieve a Win‒Win Solution for Dietary Health and Carbon Reduction— Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China’’ is interested article, however, it require major changes. Moreover the technical, novel side of the paper is very week. Following are the comments for the authors to improve the article:
Ø The article title is more like the question / statement, authors are suggested to re-write the title with the research impact and novelty perspective.
Ø Specially remove word ‘’How’’ as this is a non-scientific word and represent a general term instead of technical / novel.
Ø A lot of research is going on for the carbon emission reduction. How authors claim the new aspect for the need of this publication?
Ø Problem statement should be mentioned at the start of the abstract, it is totally missing.
Ø The results aspect in the abstract should not be described in the numbering form, it should be in para form.
Ø There should be some statistical figured values in the abstract which can quantify the research / optimization and it can make readership of the journal easy.
Ø Abstract needs to re-write as it is not clear and number of abstract components are missing.
Ø There should be some proper synchronization of the sentences in meaningful way.
Ø The abstract should also include the solution of the problem based on the problem statement with some particular application/s.
Ø Authors should avoid multiple references in one statement. E.g. [24-29]. Authors should try to add only 1-2 references in a single statement.
Ø The quality of figures is very poor. All figures require re-work. Also, please justify the way data analyses conducted for the present research. What this add to the contribution of this study?
Ø Before the simulation results, authors are advised to add some experimental benchmark validation model for this study.
Ø Authors should have the idea when an information is required to be tabulated.
Ø Activity and/or text inside figures is not readable. Authors should redraw all figures with good high resolution quality for the better readership.
Ø There are few old references, authors are encouraged to add latest literature.
Ø The graphics of the results need improvement. It should be reviewed by the authors in the revised version.
Ø Materials and Methods section contain a lot of literature. Authors are advised to discuss this in the introduction section.
Ø Conclusion section is very long. Authors should only focus on the conclusion of the research and not to add results and/or any other information.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript used the two-stage Engel-QUAIDS model to conduct an empirical analysis of the food consumption and carbon emission of urban and rural residents in the Yangtze River Delta.
Abstract
I suggest that the abstract there should more clearly stated the main aims, possible novelties and/or contributions and implications of the study.
1. Introduction
This section is without clear motivation, without a focus and without research questions. It is suggested to specify in a better way the motivation, aims and objectives, and possible novelty and/or contribution of the manuscript to the literature.
Introduction should be brief, providing motivation of the research and outline main research focus. The objectives must be specified more in detail.
2. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
This section is absent, I suggest to report it and with the aim to extend the literature review
I suggest to report the Research Questions (RQs) in the section.
2. 3. Methods
2.1. 3.1 Data Sources
The description of the methodological approach is very synthetic. I suggest to explain it in a better way.
2.1.1. 3.1.1 Data on Food Consumption
I suggest to extend this sub-section with more information about the consumption data of urban and rural residents.
Line 106: 4 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 1995 to 2019?
Lines 109-110: the missing values of some food consumption were treated by the linear interpolation method. How?
Lines 111-112: the consumer price classification index (CPI) of urban and rural residents in various provinces as the price index and taking the price in 1995 as 112 the fixed base index for indexation processing. Please, specify in a better way
Lines 118-119: two-stage demand analysis method (Engel-QUAIDS), in the Engel model of the first stage. In the previous literature are there other studies that have used this methodological approach?
2.1.2. 3.1.2 Data on Food Carbon Emission and Nutrient Coefficients
Lines 139-141: How was the nutrient coefficient calculated?
2.2. 3.2. Model Construction and Elastic Calculation
Line 143: The elasticity of demand is central to predicting future food consumption. Why?
2.2.1. 3.2.1 Engel Model = Ok
2.2.2. 3.2.2 QUAIDS Model = Ok
2.3. 3.3. Calculation of Food Carbon Emission and Nutrient Elasticity = Ok
3. 4. Results and discussion
3.1. 4.1 Descriptive Statistical Analysis
Line 226: living standards. Which ones?
Table 2: Please report the source
3.2. 4.2. Resident Food Consumption Structure and Carbon Emission
Line 234: With the gradual improvement of resident living standards. Which ones?
Lines 238-239: The decrease in grain consumption of 238 rural residents is larger. Please motivate, with the support of previous studies, this statement.
Lines 240-241: Urban residents consume more than rural residents. Please provide a possible explanation.
Lines 249-250: the recommended amount in the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2016. Please report these recommendations.
3.3. 4.3 Resident Food Consumption of Energy and Nutrient Intake
Lines 274-276. Please provide a possible explanation.
3.4. 4.4 Analysis of Food Consumption, Carbon Emission and Nutrient Elasticity
3.4.1. 4.4.1 Analysis of Food Consumption Elasticity
Lines 296-297: indicating that fluctuations in egg price can most affect the food consumption of residents. In what way?
Lines 303-305: urban residents are more sensitive to the price of eggs, while rural residents are more sensitive to the price of aquatic products, and the consumption of basic food (grain and oils) by urban and rural residents is relatively stable. Please provide a possible explanation.
Lines 311-313: indicating that when the income of urban and rural residents increases, rural residents will consume more food than urban residents. Please motivate, with the support of previous studies, this statement.
3.4.2. 4.4.2 Elasticity Analysis of Carbon Emission from Food Consumption
Lines 326-327: except for melons and 326 fruits and oils. Why?
3.5. 4.5 Simulation Analysis of Income and Policy Changes = Ok
I suggest to discuss all results and findings in relation to previous studies and findings.
5. 6. Conclusions.
Conclusions and recommendations should be improved as they largely repeated the results. The character of conclusion is too general one and it repeats results. Authors should better underline conclusions, and intensions for future researches should be noted at the end of the conclusions.
What are the proposals for research in future?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
accept
Author Response
Thanks for being with us.
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
your work, thanks the reviewer's suggestions, has been greatly improved. However, I suggest to report in table1 the name of the categories, to summarise the conclusions and to include in the same section some suggestions for future work on the topic.
Author Response
Thanks for your suggestion.
（1）We added a column introducing each food category in Table 1(Page 5);（2）We added the future work direction in lines 641-645 in the conclusion. For your convenience, we copied the sentence below:
“Based on the above research results, in the future, we can focus on the low-carbon food consumption patterns of other targeted areas (especially poor areas) or targeted populations (e.g. the elderly, women, and children), precisely implement dietary nutrition interventions, and improve nutritional health levels.”
