CARROT COWBOY: Justin Pettit of Santa Carota Is Taking on the Industry

Justin Pettit is a third-generation cattle rancher in Bakersfield, California, where the West has never quite been won. Nine years ago, he developed a novel premium beef product. His carrot-finished beef was soon in demand among customers seeking a prime-graded grass-finished option as well as high-end restaurants and culinary programs across the country. After surviving COVID in Gavin Newsom’s California, Pettit says a massive meat processor based in Southern California cheated him and his customers by cutting his product with foreign beef. Once he caught the alleged fraud, he says he tried to catch up on orders, but it was too late. He lost customers and business, a 10,000-acre ranch lease, and soon his home. Now he’s embroiled in an unresolved lawsuit with a meat industry behemoth in a microcosm of the stakes ranchers and farmers face.Between fighting wildland fires, founding a non-profit for kids with special needs, driving a horse trailer full of food through the L.A. fires to feed evacuees, smuggling beef to restaurants during COVID, dealing with train robbers and cartel neighbors, and trying to create a new product in an industry as old as the American frontier, Justin is living a modern cowboy adventure in the unwon West. His story offers insight into the stakes facing modern ranchers and reveals the cracks in a food system increasingly unfriendly to on-the-ground producers. Justin believes he’s fighting for the industry itself; if and when he wins, it will be a win for the industry, proving you can still create something new and find success in cowboy country.Show NotesSponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.ioSpecial thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.LinksWebsite: https://www.santacarotabeef.comGoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-our-family-ranch-businessInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/santacarotabeef/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SantaCarotaBeefX: https://x.com/santacarotabeef UNWON is reader-supported. To support independent journalism for the American West, become a subscriber. Get full access to UNWON at www.americaunwon.com/subscribe