An Agro-Based Society after Post-Industrial Society: From a Perspective of Economic Growth Paradigm
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Regarding the phrase 1. Anthropocene would be useful to insert in quotation marks and insert as follows: known as "Anthropocene" refers to the current geological age, seen as the period when human activity was the dominant influence on climate and environment.
Since October 2021, neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) nor the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) have approved the official term as a recognized subdivision of geological time, it would be useful to mark in quotation marks and introduce the thesis known as epoch " 1. referring to or designating the current geological epoch, regarded as the period in which human activity was the dominant influence on the climate and the environment.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear editors and referees,
We very much appreciate the careful reading of our manuscript. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for improving our paper and providing important guidance to our research. We have carefully considered the comments from editors and reviewers and have revised the manuscript accordingly which we hope meet with approval. To make them easy to read in the new manuscript, we also show the corrections in detail of page, paragraph and line number. The main corrections in the new manuscript and the responds to the comments are listed as follows. The comments and suggestions are given in red color, answers are given in regular color.
Answers to reviewer 1
- Regarding the phrase 1. Anthropocene would be useful to insert in quotation marks and insert as follows: known as "Anthropocene" refers to the current geological age, seen as the period when human activity was the dominant influence on climate and environment.
Since October 2021, neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) nor the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) have approved the official term as a recognized subdivision of geological time, it would be useful to mark in quotation marks and introduce the thesis known as epoch " 1. referring to or designating the current geological epoch, regarded as the period in which human activity was the dominant influence on the climate and the environment.
As suggested by reviewer 1, we replace all Anthropocene with "Anthropocene".
- “a 2008’s Green New Deal”please quote the source
The revision part is in page 1, paragraphs 1, lines 26-28.
In 2008, the New Economics Foundation proposed “a paradigm shift from the general and unlimited pursuit of economic growth to a concept of "right-sizing", as a clear-sighted and inspiring vision of a 2008’s Green New Deal (Barbier 2010).
- “According to The 2014 UNEP Yearbook and Valuing Plastic”,please check the citation the exact date you are referring to or the first one in which the thesis is defended
The revision part is in page 7, paragraphs 2, lines 333-335.
According to The 2014 UNEP Yearbook and Valuing Plastic, the damage posed by plastic waste materials on marine life is estimated to be $13 billion annually(UNEP2014).
- “The 330"2017 E-waste Report" issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) pointed out that in 2016, a total of 44.7 million tons of e-waste was generated globally, and 332it will increase to 52.2 million tons in 2021”. please check the citation the exact date you are referring to or the first one in which the thesis is defended
The revision part is in page 7, paragraphs 2, lines 343-345.
The "2017 E-waste Report" issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) pointed out that in 2016, a total of 44.7 million metric tonnes of e-waste was generated globally, and it will increase to 52.2 million metric tonnes in 2021(Baldé et al. 2017).
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic discussed by the authors is interesting and very important for both social and environmental scientists. However, environmental systems (ecosystem/ecosphere) is a physical system and any solution proposed to solve global environmental issues must have physical basis provided to it. In this context, proposing agriculture-based economy to be solution for everything seems not convincing. Therefore, in order to be accepted for final publication, this paper must address the following comments/concerns:
- Line 165, 166, 167 (“Over the past several decades’ rapid advances in transport, energy, agriculture, and other sectors have led to a trend of dematerialization in several advanced economies. The amount and value of economic activity continue to grow but the amount of physical material flowing through the economy does not”). Please recheck this argument and similar ones which are quite frequent in the manuscript. Statements such as this one mean that humans are going in the right direction and if so, then there is no need to change life style, livelihood dependency, habits or activities. In other words, humans are not required to adapt agriculture-based society because what is said in the above statement is only possible through industrial revolution/advancements.
- Therefore, the authors are required to first eliminate all the arguments from the article which contradicts their proposed theory.
- Afterwards, the authors must establish and prove their theory to be correct, i.e. an agro-based society is both environmentally and economically superior than an industrial society. This has to be either supported by empirical evidence (which seems highly unlikely), or through theoretical or anthropological evidences.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear editors and referees,
We very much appreciate the careful reading of our manuscript. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for improving our paper and providing important guidance to our research. We have carefully considered the comments from editors and reviewers and have revised the manuscript accordingly which we hope meet with approval. To make them easy to read in the new manuscript, we also show the corrections in detail of page, paragraph and line number. The main corrections in the new manuscript and the responds to the comments are listed as follows. The comments and suggestions are given in yellow shadow, answers are given in regular color.
Answers to reviewer 2
peer-review-15857849.v1.pdf
- Line 165, 166, 167 (“Over the past several decades’ rapid advances in transport, energy, agriculture, and other sectors have led to a trend of dematerialization in several advanced economies. The amount and value of economic activity continue to grow but the amount of physical material flowing through the economy does not”). Please recheck this argument and similar ones which are quite frequent in the manuscript. Statements such as this one mean that humans are going in the right direction and if so, then there is no need to change life style, livelihood dependency, habits or activities. In other words, humans are not required to adapt agriculture-based society because what is said in the above statement is only possible through industrial revolution/advancements.
Therefore, the authors are required to first eliminate all the arguments from the article which contradicts their proposed theory.
The revision part is in page 4, paragraphs 2, lines 168-172.
With big achievement of technologies, “over the past several decades’ rapid advances in transport, energy, agriculture, and other sectors have led to a trend of dematerialization in several advanced economies. The amount and value of economic activity continue to grow but the amount of physical material flowing through the economy does not” (Steffen et al. 2007 p.619).
- Afterwards, the authors must establish and prove their theory to be correct, i.e. an agro-based society is both environmentally and economically superior than an industrial society. This has to be either supported by empirical evidence (which seems highly unlikely), or through theoretical or anthropological evidences.
As reviewer 2 pointed out, it is important to prove that “agro-based society is both environmentally and economically superior than an industrial society”. it is really a valuable suggestion. Right now, we can just prove theoretically that agro-based society will have some economic and environmental advantages, which need further empirical evidences in the transformation of economic paradigm. It is also a meaningful research area for future studies.
As we argued in the paper, the part is in page 4, paragraphs 2, lines 161-172, which try to prove the economic feasiblity of agrobased society breaking through the bottleneck of resource shortage .
“Agro-based society inherits the advantages of agricultural society and industrial society; it is not the simple sublimation of their contents. In this process subversive changes have undergone in production methods and human needs can be fully satisfied by agriculture with breakthrough advancement over technologies and productivities. In particular, the development of life science and biotechnology employed by modern agriculture has far exceeded the imagination of traditional farmers. In the future, the products produced by agriculture in the future may satisfy most or even all diversified humanity demand”. With big achievement of technologies, “over the past several decades’ rapid advances in transport, energy, agriculture, and other sectors have led to a trend of dematerialization in several advanced economies. The amount and value of economic activity continue to grow but the amount of physical material flowing through the economy does not” (Steffen et al. 2007 p.619).
With respect to the environmental adavantes of agrobased society, it is given by the part in page 6, paragraphs 3, lines 275-278.
“Life on earth is carbon-based, and the agricultural-based production process is the natural carbon cycle process. Organisms combine CO2 and water to form hydrocarbons through photosynthesis. In this process, solar energy is stored in the chemical compounds. Substituting biomass for fossil fuels not only meets human energy needs, but also realizes the carbon cycle.”
As we argued in the paper, the part is in page 7, paragraphs 3, lines 346-355.
“Agro-based society also produces waste, but it is mainly the result of biological metabolism. The composition of these wastes is relatively simple, and basically they can be degraded in the natural environment and reused by other organisms. In addition, agricultural or biological methods have higher efficiency and more thorough effects in the treatment of existing environmental pollution, and wetlands are typical in this regard. Nowadays, the use of genetically recombined microorganisms to decompose some toxic industrial wastes and the use of biofilms to treat wastewater have achieved commercial success. In contrast, the use of physical and chemical methods to control pollution has not only limited treatment effects, but also its own possibility of generating new sources of pollution”.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper was improved and comments were addressed. The paper needs to be copyedited and proofed before publication.
