UNIT 5: Chapter Thirteen - 5.8, Pgs. 315-321 Flashcards
Location Theory
A key component of economic geography, deals with why people choose certain locations for various types of economic activity– factories, stores, restaurants, or agriculture.
Von Thunen Model
An economic model that suggested a pattern for the types of products that farmers would produce at different positions relative to the market (community) where they sold their goods.
VT zone 1
Horticulture, produces perishable items, and farmers need to get them to market quickly, especially important before trucks and refrigeration.
VT zone 2
Forest. Wood was an extremely important resource, as building material and as a source of fuel. Von Thunen thought that wood products would be close to the market because they were not only important but heavy, costly, and difficult to transport.
VT zone 3
Grain.Crops such as wheat and corn. Though valuable, they did not perish as quickly as vegetables and milk and were not as difficult to transport as wood.
VT zone 4
Livestock. Such as beef cattle. Livestock could be located farther from the market since they have lower transportation costs because farmers can walk them to the market.
Bid-rent Curve
Graph that can be used to determine the starting position for each land use relative to the market, as well as where each land use would end.
Free Market Economy
Where supply and demand, not government policy, determine the outcome of competition for land.
Comparative Advantage
Naturally occurring beneficial conditions, this would prompt farmers to plant crops differently from those predicted by von Thunen’s model.
Von Thunen Model Assumptions
- Farming was an economic activity
- Farmers were in business to make profit
- There was one market where farmers sold their products
- There was one transportation system
- The market was situated in the center of an isotropic plain
