Yes, that’s still purchasing from the farmer, the consumer pays the processor.
But the farmer can’t send his animals to the local guy and have them packaged for resale to sell from the farm or at local markets and grocers unless it’s a USDA processor and most of them won’t take your 6 or 8 animals. They only want to do big batches. Partly because segregating a small number of animals for processing and packaging to custom orders is something they’re not set up to do.
Of course this is perfect work for the small butcher and precisely what he is set up to do, but getting USDA certified and then having the inspector on hand for only a handful of animals is wildly expensive and so not cost effective, so none exist.
The USDA is like the one ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. This is why the meat industry is run by gigantic packing houses and all the disgusting malarkey that goes on in them.
Makes sense to me. We always had great luck with the smaller operators, along with the advantage of knowing exactly how are livestock were fed.