1. What is the bid-rent theory and how does it explain the relationship between land value and distance from urban markets?

2. How do intensive and extensive land-use agriculture differ in their use of capital, labor, and space?

3. What are examples of intensive agricultural practices and where are they commonly found?

1. What demographic and economic forces are pushing farmers to use land more intensely rather than allowing it to lie fallow?

2. How has global demand for tropical cash crops and timber affected shifting cultivation in developing regions?

1. What are double cropping and intercropping, and how do they increase the intensity of land use?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of monoculture and monocropping?

1. How has the livestock industry changed from extensive grazing to feedlots, and what are the economic benefits of this shift?

2. How do cattle ranching in Wyoming and feedlots in Colorado represent both extensive and intensive phases of meat production?

1. What is agribusiness and what steps of food production does it integrate?

2. How do homeowner-scale and agribusiness-scale vegetable farming differ in their methods and scope?

1. What is vertical integration and how does it benefit large corporate farms?

2. How do economies of scale allow large farms to reduce per-unit production costs and increase profits?

3. Why have large corporate farms made it difficult for family farms to survive?

1. What is a commodity chain and how does it connect global producers and consumers?

2. What elements and institutions facilitate the movement of agricultural products through commodity chains?

1. How have technological advances increased the carrying capacity of U.S. farmers over the past half century?

2. What are the benefits of technological improvements in agriculture, including fertilizers, seeds, and transportation?

3. What environmental costs have resulted from technological advancements in agriculture?

1. What are the key assumptions von Thünen made about farming, markets, and transportation in his model?

2. What four factors did von Thünen identify as influencing farmers' decisions about what to produce?

3. What types of agriculture did von Thünen predict would occur in each of the four zones, and why?

1. How does land value change with distance from the market in von Thünen's model, and what types of crops can farmers afford to grow in each zone?

2. How does the example of North Dakota wheat farmers demonstrate that distance to market still influences land prices today?

1. What is the bid-rent theory and how does a bid-price curve determine the boundaries between agricultural zones?

2. In a free-market economy, which farmer gains possession of land at each location and why?

1. How do non-isotropic plains with rivers, mountains, and varying soil fertility alter the shape of von Thünen's zones?

2. How have changes in transportation technology affected the size and relative position of agricultural zones?

3. Why can cut flowers be profitably grown in the Caribbean and flown to New York despite higher transportation costs?

4. How has the role of forests changed since von Thünen's time, and what now occupies forested land near cities?

1. How can the von Thünen model be applied at a national scale, and what modifications are necessary for the United States?

2. What special circumstances and exceptions does the von Thünen model fail to explain in modern agriculture?

1. What are the major assumptions of von Thünen's model and how do modern conditions limit its applicability?

1. How do developed countries rely on producers in other regions to provide fresh fruits and vegetables year-round?

2. What are luxury crops and why are they typically grown on plantations in low-latitude countries?

1. What are the benefits and problems that globalized commodity chains create for periphery and semiperiphery countries?

2. How can a country's dependence on one or two export commodities create economic vulnerability?

1. What conditions are necessary for efficient exchange of food around the world?

2. How do colonialism and neocolonialism relate to current patterns of global food distribution?

3. What are the basic principles of the fair trade movement and what has it accomplished since 1988?

4. Why do governments provide subsidies to farmers and what goals do these subsidies achieve?

5. How does transportation infrastructure support global agricultural systems and what role do governments play?