Agricultural Location Theory, 2: Relaxation of Assumptions and Applications

Abstract

Each of the many assumptions of von Thünen's crop theory may be relaxed separately. Although these exercises demonstrate the flexibility of the theory, few attempts have been made to relax more than one assumption at a time. The theory has been applied widely and internationally at three scales, namely the microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale. The microscale relates to distances from famers' homes to their fields. The mesoscale relates to land uses around single urban centres and to urban pressures on agricultural production at the urban fringe. The macroscale is an attempt to uncover land-use rings at continental and global scales. A major future challenge for the theory is the possible incorporation of Marxist notions.