#016 4T% Ranch: Cold Hard Cattle - Ben Adams

In this episode I sit down with Ben Adams, owner and operator of 4T% Ranch in Soldotna, Alaska, to talk about the work, the cost, and the conviction behind one of the wildest modern ranching stories I have ever heard. 
Ben grew up poor in Canada with a legally blind father, learned responsibility early, and eventually "fluked" his way into a career as a criminal defense attorney. Years later, he walked away from the courtroom, carved a ranch out of the boreal forest on the central Kenai Peninsula, and has been grinding ever since to raise some of the most nutritionally dense beef in the country. Along the way, his body and spirit have taken a beating from brutal winters, dead calves,  broken equipment, borough taxes, skeptical farmers, and the foreboding task it is to build success in the ag industry. 

Through it all, Ben’s impenetrable work ethic, his love for cattle, and his belief that food should actually nourish people keep him going. His transparency on social media has turned 4T% Ranch into something like a live action docu series. Building quite the community of those that cheer him on, but not without those that remain skeptical and criticize his unconventional approach to life and ranching. 

In this episode we talk about: 

• Ben’s childhood in Canada and what it was like to be raised by a legally blind single dad while living in poverty
• How those early years shaped his work ethic and his decision to grind through university and law school
• The SWAT raid that flipped his view of the justice system and pushed him toward criminal defense work
• Going from broke public defender to successful private attorney and multimillionaire, then choosing a harder life anyway
• Why he always saw law as a way to someday become a farmer
• Buying land on the Kenai, building a massive timber frame home from his own trees, and the decision to ranch
• How a few cows turned into hundreds, and why ranching in the central Kenai Peninsula might be the toughest way to raise beef in Alaska
• The insane logistics of feeding and moving cattle when almost everything has to be trucked in or hauled for hours
• Losing money, losing cattle, and nearly breaking himself during long winters and calving seasons
• Why he feeds root crops like potatoes, beets, and carrots, and what the nutritional testing on his beef actually showed
• The lack of real support for agriculture in Alaska, from tax policy to local culture, and the pushback he has felt from some in the ag community
• Buying a USDA plant to keep local processing alive, and why he did it even though it cost him dearly
• The future of farming and food security in the United States as older producers age out and fewer young people step in

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Order beef from 4T% Ranch
Text: 907-394-5619 
He tracks orders by text. Reach out, tell him you heard the podcast, and he will walk you through what cuts are available and how pickup or delivery works.
 

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 Keep North, Alaska.
 

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