Totally agree on both counts. The benefit of local is that you can know the farmer at all. You'll just never get that with industrial ag. You'll never know how the animals were raised, how they were processed, or who all was involved as the animal likely was shipped all over the country or even overseas before you ate it.

I definitely get people's apprehension with raw milk. I very much need to know where it came from, and have a good idea for the health of the animal. We hand milk when our cows are lactating, and occasionallu buy from a local family dairy that we've worked with for years.