Transitioning towards Organic Farming: Perspectives for the Future of the Italian Organic Wine Sector

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In my opinion the article is a technical report and as such it that should be presented in a different field of publicity eg Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

Author Response

Point 1: In my opinion the article is a technical report and as such it that should be presented in a different field of publicity eg Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

Response1:  We have improved the paper. We have added scientific letterature and restructured all paragraphs. We have argumented and discussed findings.  

Thank you for your suggestion

Best regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione 

Reviewer 2 Report

In general the paper needs a good editing by a good English speaking person. In some parts of the text I was lost. The authors have to ask assistance by an appropriate person.

At the end of introduction the authors state some objectives of their work which I do not think that they addressed it clearly apart from the possible effects of EU regulations. In the materials and methods, the authors use for their analysis an SD approach.They do not give any short description what is this about apart from four references. I think the paper has to be self-contained and as SD is the basic method it needs some short presentation. In the driver Table they present, they do not have all variables afffecting th systme that could help the reader to understand better their work. In agrifood driver there are not variables or any real economic variable appart from subssidies.

In the results the two first setions refer to the EY regulation and in the third  to the causual loops digramme. The discussion is rather conclusions.

Author Response

Thank you for your revision.

Kindest regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

No comments.

Author Response

Thank you for your revision.

kindest regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Reviewer 4 Report

This paper aims at investigating the development prospects of the Italian organic wine sector.  In this respect, the authors strive to adopt the system dynamics approach and explain the relationships between the most important determinants that affect the transition from conventional to organic wine production. It is well written but should be better developed in some parts or provide more clear explanations.

In particular, the methodology part seems to be underdeveloped and some kind of quantitative analysis or simulation would significantly enrich the paper. Certainly, the Causal Loop Diagram, which provides a valuable information about different interconnections identified in the system, could be supplemented by some network statistics.

Minor remarks:

• discussion section resembles more the conclusion - I suggest to reorganize the paper by transforming section 3 “Results” into “Results and discussion” and 4 into “Conclusion”. Typically, the Discussion section is one of the most important parts of any research paper. Therefore, here, it must either be combined with the Results in some way or significantly developed.    
• lines 128-132 – I would recommend replacing the quote by rephrasing the sentence with own words – the quotation should be rather used to underline someone’s important message, which is not the case here
• a quote would rather be appropriate for a paragraph on lines 153-160 – as it stands, it may not be clear to the reader if these are own words of David Bowler

Author Response

Thank you for your revision.

Kindest regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I can see now a scientific paper than a technical report. The manuscript integrates significant data on wine sector and points out the major challenges on the sector.

Author Response

Thank you for your revision.

Kindest regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Reviewer 2 Report

The papaper  is now improved. The authors made a good effort.  There are still some parts that can improved:

L26 the global wine market boasted a production of  260 million hectolitres, and a traded volume of 105.8 million hectolitres    What do you mean? What is wine market  and what traded volume? Please define the difference and make clear what you mean in all figures you give.

L282-288. Please rewrite it. It is difficult to understand what you mean.

L314-318 You have a huge sentence that make difficult for the reader to follow.  Try to make simpler sentences with clear meaning. L318-322 similar problem.

Author Response

Thank you for your revision.

Best regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

The paper has been improved and reorganized and the authors have accommodated most of the comments. Nevertheless, I still feel a bit unsatisfied due to underdevelopments in several areas:

- as previously mentioned, in my opinion the lack of any quantitative analysis lowers the value of this article. I understand that due to the lack of official data, the authors focus on the qualitative analysis, without performing any simulations. Nevertheless, adding quantitative component would make the work more attractive and scientific and allow you to reach a wider audience. I propose to consider, for example, the use of network analysis to perform at least a numerical analysis of the CLD structure (something like McGlashan, J., Johnstone, M., Creighton, D., de la Haye, K., & Allender, S. (2016). Quantifying a systems map: network analysis of a childhood obesity causal loop diagram. PloS one, 11 (10), e0165459)

- Research question no.  4 seems unfinished (line 118-119)

- the discussion and conclusions could be linked more clearly/directly with the research goal and questions

Author Response

Thank you very much for your suggestion and advice.

Kindest regards

Giovanni Dara Guccione

Author Response File: Author Response.docx