What is a fundamental assumption of the Von Thünen model of agricultural land use?

• A. It assumes a single market with uniform land cost
• B. It assumes multiple markets with varied land costs
• C. It ignores transportation networks
• D. It accounts for land quality variation

Answer: (A)

Von Thünen’s idea rests on a single market center and land that is uniform across the plain. With one market, transport costs rise with distance, so farmers organize production to minimize total costs, creating the neat ring pattern around the city. That single-market, uniform-land assumption is what makes the rings predictable; if there were multiple markets or if land varied in quality, the rings wouldn’t form as described. Transportation costs are a core part of the mechanism, so ignoring them would erase the distance-driven pattern, and allowing land quality to vary would distort rents and break the uniform rings.