Publications

Book manuscripts

Petersen-Rockney, M. “Farmers and Climate Change: Agricultural Adaptation in an Age of Rural Polarization.” Yale University Press, Agrarian Studies Series (in production with print release scheduled for summer 2026). 

Peer-reviewed articles

2025 Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Baur, P.,* Bowles, T., and Ahmed, S. “A mangrove metaphor for sustainable food systems centres diversification as the root of human and planetary health,” Nature Food, Vol. 6: 539-546.

2024 Baur, P., Getz, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., and Sowerwine, J. “Compliance is far from standard: Relational conditions of access and exclusion in agriculture.” Journal of Rural Studies, 109: 103335.

2024 Petersen-Rockney, M.*, Dillis, C.,* and Polson, M.* “A theory of geo-social marginalization: A case study of the licensed cannabis industry in California,” Journal of Environmental Management, 355:120396. 

2022 Petersen-Rockney, M. “Social risk perceptions of climate change: A case study of farmers and agricultural advisors in northern California,” Journal of Global Environmental Change, 75:102557.

2022 Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Lu, J.,* and Dev, L.* “Criminalized crops: Environmental discourses, illicit crop interventions, and the production of marginality,” Political Geography, Vol. 99. 102781.

2022 Petersen-Rockney, M. “Farmers adapt to climate change irrespective of stated beliefs in climate change: A California case study,” Climatic Change, 173:23.

2022 Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Saliman, A.* “Rancher experiences and perceptions of climate change in the Western United States,” Rangeland Ecology and Management, 84: 75-85. (Note: Saliman was an undergraduate mentee at UC Berkeley)

2021 Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Baur, P.,* Guzman, A., Franz Bender, S., Calo, A., Castillo, F., De Master, K., Dumont, A., Esquivel, K., Kremen, C., LaChance, J., Mooshammer, M., Ory, J., Price, P., Socolar, Y., Stanley, P., Iles, A., Bowles, T. “Narrow and Brittle or Broad and Nimble? Comparing adaptive capacity in simplifying and diversifying farming systems,” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Vol. 5. 

2021 Petersen-Rockney, M., Ahmed, S., Bowles, T., Baur, P. “Editorial: Diversified farming systems for adaptive capacity,” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 5:806604.

2021 Petersen-Rockney, M. “Porcine Providence: pigs, differentiation, and cultural strategies of exclusion through agrarian transformations in the making of a US city,” Journal of Agricultural History, Vol 95: 5.

2019 Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Polson, M.* “Cannabis farmers or criminals? Enforcement-first approaches fuel disparity and hinder regulation,” California Agriculture, Vol. 73: 3.

(* = co-lead authors)

Policy reports

Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Polson, M.,* Getz, C. “Cannabis Bans, Local Control, and the Effects and Efficacy of Proposition 64,” Science Policy Brief, Berkeley Cannabis Research Center. 2024. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4819697

Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Polson, M.,* Getz, C. “Environmental Impacts of Cannabis Cultivation Bans,” Science Policy Brief, Berkeley Cannabis Research Center. 2023.

Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Polson, M.,* Getz, C. “Outcomes of Local Cannabis Cultivation Bans on California Communities,” Science Policy Brief, Berkeley Cannabis Research Center. 2023.

Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Polson, M.,* Getz, C. “Local-level cannabis cultivation ban approaches vary in California,” Science Policy Brief, Berkeley Cannabis Research Center. 2023.

Polson, M., Bodwitch, H., Corva, D., Getz, C., Laudati, A., Petersen-Rockney, M., Runsten, D., Taylor, K. “Smaller Cultivation and California Cannabis Policy: Recommendations for a Multi-Scale Cultivation Sector,” Policy Brief, California Department of Cannabis Control.  

Polson, M., Dillis, C., Genova, H., Grantham, T., Herrera, L., Hossack, J., Laudati, A., Petersen-Rockney, M., et al. “Policy Findings & Recommendations Regarding California Cannabis: Farming, Regulation and the Environment,” Berkeley Cannabis Research Center, White Paper, California Department of Cannabis Control.  

Petersen-Rockney, M.,* Calo, A.* “What beginning farmers need most in the next Farm Bill: Land,” Policy Brief, Berkeley Food Institute. 2018. 

Petersen-Rockney, M. “Tribal water scarcity and water use among beginning farmers in the mid-Klamath River Basin,” Extension Research Report, Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative and UCANR. 2017. 

Other writing 

2019  Petersen-Rockney, M. “Farming Water: More frequent and intense droughts are forcing the West to use less water. Can we balance the needs of farming and conservation?” Grist: grist.org/article/this-conservation-group-wanted-to-balance-cows-andsalmon-so-wheres-the-beef/  

2018  Petersen-Rockney, M. “Last chance in this Farm Bill for beginning farmers and our farmland,” National Young Farmer Coalition Newsletter and Blog, October 8: www.youngfarmers.org/2018/10/lastchance/  

2018  Petersen-Rockney, M. “This Farm Bill deregulates the rich and polices the poor,” High Country News, Opinion July 24th: www.hcn.org/articles/opinion-this-farm-billderegulates-the-rich-and-polices-the-poor Syndicated in The Denver Post, Canton Daily Ledger, The Progressive Populist, The Laurel Outlook, and Pekin Daily Times.

2014  Petersen-Rockney, M., Hashley, J., Cerretani, K., Wasserman, A. An entrepreneur’s guide to farming in Massachusetts. Edited book:

nesfp.org/sites/default/files/resources/an_entrepreneurs_guide_to_farming_ma_0.pdf