THE LOCAVORE GUIDES

The Locavore’s Guide to Understanding Food and Farming Terminology

An expanding glossary breaking down some of the most common terminology you may encounter as buyers, and what they really mean in practice.

Yashvi Shah AND NEIL KHOPKAR | 11 February 2026

ILLUSTRATION BY ANUGRAHA MAHESH.

As consumers who care about where their food comes from, we often notice terms like ‘free-range’, ‘organic’, and ‘no added preservatives’ at the back of labels. But what do they exactly mean? At The Locavore, we also hear these terms, among many others, come up in our conversations with food producers. This begets some more questions: Is ‘sustainable’ farming different from ‘regenerative’ farming? Why is it important for our spices and coffee to be ‘single-origin’? Where can our produce be traced back to? 

Over the years, with f, we’ve learned more about food production from farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs who adopt ethical, sustainable agricultural practices. This glossary attempts to break down some of this information.

Disclaimer: Many of these terms are not legally regulated in India and are often open to interpretation. This glossary reflects how we understand and encounter them through our work with producers and organisations at The Locavore.

Table of Contents

Agroecology

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agroecology is a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems. It seeks to optimise the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems. Under agroecology, the ultimate aim is to sculpt a circular and sustainable economy that is independent in nourishing itself and replenishing its nutrients.

Agroforestry

To put it simply, agroforestry involves agricultural practices that incorporate the cultivation of native trees in conventional farming. This method of farming helps maintain water and ecological health. 

For instance, Earth Focus Foundation helped communities along the Banjar river in Madhya Pradesh put their barren land to productive use through agroforestry. Farmers grew various native crops—pulses, oilseeds, millets, vegetables, tubers, bamboo, and trees (like mango, guava, mahua)—while also working on soil restoration.

Similarly, in Gujarat, Wild Jai Farms integrated their fruit orchards into the neighbouring Gir forest and worked to turn it into a safe haven for wildlife while also growing vegetables on the land amongst the trees.

Biodegradable

Any material that can be broken down into simpler substances such as carbon or water by biological actors including microorganisms is considered biodegradable. Many materials, while biodegradable, can still be harmful to the environment if not disposed of properly. For instance, biodegradable plastic often requires a specific environment to degrade and can persist if the conditions are not met. 

Many biodegradable ingredients can also have a negative impact on the environment. For instance, palm oil, which emerged as a healthier and environmentally safer replacement for hydrogenated fats in foodstuffs and petrochemicals in industry, is now the reason behind mass deforestation in Indonesia and Africa. 

Carbon footprint

Carbon footprint refers to the measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide that is created by an activity or accumulated over the life stages of a product. A smaller carbon footprint is considered better for the environment. The carbon footprint of a product also includes the distances it has travelled and mode of transport that’s been used along with the kind of packaging. For example, in Delhi, an apple wrapped in paper and transported from Jammu via train will have a smaller carbon footprint than an apple wrapped in plastic and flown in from New Zealand.

Climate crisis

Surpassing the term ‘climate change’, ‘climate crisis’ asserts the exigency of the decline of resources, biodiversity, and soil health. Food producers across India are facing its impact in the form of unseasonal rainfall, increase in temperature, loss of biodiversity, and several other fallouts. 

In the face of such varying, unpredictable weather patterns, farmers and producers often have to contend with challenges such as landslides, logistical hurdles, and even changes in local diets. 

Read more about how food producers are navigating the impact of the climate crisis:

Ecology

Ecology refers to the interrelationships between organisms and the environment. Here, the organisms refer to the microbes that make the soil, flora and fauna that comprise the biodiversity, and humans that interact and engage with them both.

For example, Earth Focus Foundation, a community-led organisation working with farmers from the Baiga and Gond tribal communities in Kanha, Madhya Pradesh, aims to restore the landscape surrounding the forests. To attain this, they work closely with forest-dwelling communities. 

Food sovereignty 

Food sovereignty refers to the power of local communities and farmers to control their own food supply, and to determine the policies and processes that govern food production and distribution. Large-scale industrialised agriculture often undermines this sovereignty by trapping communities in debt traps, and making it difficult for them to own their own seeds for yearly cropping. 

Here are some resources on food sovereignty, and how communities achieve it in India:

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is a plant or animal whose DNA has been altered with DNA from another organism to achieve a desirable trait. These can include yield, productivity, and nutritional composition. The term GMO is often used interchangeably with hybrid seeds though the two are different. 

GMOs have been a source of contention ever since their introduction, as their long-term effects have not been studied. Critics argue that consuming GMOs for a longer period of time could cause increased antibiotic resistance in humans and increased cancer risks. Read more about GMOs in India here. 

Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty, co-founder of Bio Basics, worked extensively as an activist with the Save Our Rice campaign and the anti-GMO movement to conserve India’s heritage grains, while also making it viable for farmers to do so.

Greenwashing

A widely used term in marketing, greenwashing defines the dissemination of misleading or deceptive publicity by an organisation with the aim of presenting an environmentally responsible public image. 

At The Locavore, we actively work with farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs who adopt ethical, sustainable practices toward food production that are deeply rooted in local, traditional knowledge.

Heirloom seeds

Heirloom seeds are varieties of crops that have been passed down for generations. These crops are often selected over centuries for their traits like flavour, nutrition, and ease in growing. They are often highly adapted to being cultivated in the specific environments they are native to, and even have deep cultural significance. Farmers frequently grow small plots of these varieties for personal or ritual use. 

Many heirloom varieties have become popular recently, including Khapli wheat or Tulshya rice.

The team at Aranya has been preserving native seeds since 2016. These seeds are then exchanged and used for cultivation during the next agricultural cycle. Similarly, Spirit of the Earth in Manjakkudi has been preserving, cultivating, and promoting heritage rice varieties across India. 

Hybrid seeds

Hybrid seeds are a new category of seeds created by a combination of two or more genomes. Although they are typically held responsible for diminishing crop diversity, hybrid seeds were initially manufactured to focus on the growing population’s demand for food, for which it proved to be successful. Scientists argue that the role of hybrid seeds was to curb global hunger by increasing production levels. However, the continuous use of these seeds has led to soil depletion, gut health issues, and the birth of industrialised agriculture. 

Indigenous food systems 

Indigenous food systems are systems of production and supply of food that have naturally evolved in any socio-environmental context, generally independent of globalisation. They are carved out of a need to satisfy hunger, collect water, and eat seasonally in a way that the environment has enough time to replenish its resources. Different communities are guided by their respective traditional wisdom, passed down over generations, that takes into consideration factors like climate, biodiversity, and soil characteristics. 

Zeinorin Angkang, co-founder of Hill Wild, worked with the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome to advocate for Indigenous people’s food systems. Similar values guide practices at Hill Wild. They exclusively source indigenous produce from across seven villages in Manipur and Nagaland, and adopt indigenous agricultural practices rooted in traditional knowledge to help preserve biodiversity and maintain a sustainable diet. These include relying on rainfed farming, and using bio-indicators to determine sowing practices and harvest cycles. 

Monoculture

Monoculture involves growing a single crop species on a field at one time. While it allows for efficiency in planting and harvesting, it often depletes soil nutrients and increases susceptibility to pests by eliminating natural biodiversity. 

Majority of the produce in India is a result of monocropping, with over 80 percent of farms growing just five crops. 

Read more about why monocropping is inescapable for Indian farmers here.

No-till farming 

Tilling the soil often disturbs the microbes and cell structure. No-till farming is a method of growing crops without the use of ploughs and tractors for tillage. This minimises any disruption to the topsoil and the layers beneath. 

Organic farming

Organic farming is a system wherein farmers rely on natural processes, non-chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and non-GMO seeds to grow crops. While national standards for organic farming were established in India in 2000, its regulation is not enforced strictly. The improvement of soil structure and fertility by using natural, non-synthetic inputs, and implementing a crop rotation plan, lies at the crux of organic farming. 

Bio Basics, based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, brings high-quality ingredients that are naturally grown and free from any chemical inputs from their network of organic farmers and farmer collectives. These are spread across nine states in India, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, and the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Permaculture

Instead of focusing on individual aspects that make a food system, permaculture offers an alternative design system where, with certain adjustments, a landscape is able to sustain the soil, water, and biodiversity of a region. It is a philosophy that believes farms should behave like—and work with—natural ecosystems rather than replace them. 

By studying the wind patterns, soil characteristics, and topography, permaculture focuses on rearranging the crops to fit the resources available. The need for permaculture to be self-sustaining and independent is an alternative approach to rewilding a region and letting nature take its natural control. 

Himalayan Haat, for example, maintains its water supplies by letting its natural oak forests in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal stay untouched, while planting crops that respond to the temperatures and availability of water according to the season. 

In her essay, ‘Can Permaculture Offer Hope in a Climate-insecure World?’, Sohel Sarkar discovers how permaculture can produce food that is healthier and, in some cases, can even yield greater harvests.

Preservatives

Ingredients added to a product to increase its shelf life are known as preservatives. These can either be natural or synthetic. Preservatives generally work through one of two ways—by restricting oxygen contact with the item, or by creating an environment inhospitable to microorganisms. 

While some ingredients like salt, sugar, vinegar, citrus juices, spices, alcohol, carbon dioxide gas, and oil can act as natural preservatives, many products rely on synthetic preservatives to achieve the same effect or to further enhance the properties of these ingredients. Some of these synthetic preservatives include Sodium Benzoate (often labelled E211), Potassium Sorbate (often labelled E202), and Acetic Acid (E260). 

While most of The Locavore’s producer partners do not use synthetic preservatives, we suggest you study the label carefully when buying.

Rainfed agriculture

As the name suggests, rainfed agriculture relies primarily on natural rainfall. Farmers in regions with little to no access to water often rely on rain to grow their produce. This method typically utilises traditional crop varieties adapted to local weather patterns to conserve water resources. 

The Locavore’s organisation partner WASSAN works closely with farmers, research institutions, and civil-society organisations to preserve natural resources and agriculture across rainfed ecologies in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Odisha.

Regenerative farming

Regenerative farming is a holistic approach to agriculture that aims to improve water and air quality, enhance ecosystem biodiversity, produce nutrient-dense food, and store carbon to help mitigate the effects of the climate crisis. The concept stemmed from a need to address soil health and promote biodiversity as a response to the degeneration of soil caused by industrialised farming while still growing produce profitably. 

Take Umrani Farms, for instance, which grows local varieties of grapes in the arid region of Sangli in western Maharashtra. They actively attempt to transform the rocky, arid area into a lush landscape by bringing back nutrition to the soil. They do so by adding natural inputs like dried limboli or neem seeds which, in turn, helps maintain a healthy agricultural cycle. 

Similarly, Ishka Farms, India’s first and only caper farm based in Tamil Nadu’s Niravi Pudhupatti, transformed a patch of barren land into sprawling green farms. Their decision to cultivate capers—which require little water—helps conserve groundwater and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. The idea behind regenerative farming is for croplands to function as carbon sinks—which helps mitigate the effects of the climate crisis by preserving biodiversity, improving soil health, regulating water cycles, and improving air quality—rather than a source of carbon dioxide.

Seed saving

Seed saving is the traditional practice of collecting, cleaning, and storing seeds from plants for future replanting. This preserves genetic diversity and ensures food security by allowing farmers to remain independent of commercial seed markets.

Adverse environmental and social consequences from policies enacted after the Green Revolution in India in the 1960s resulted in crops being replaced by uniform varieties. Moreover, soil health and groundwater quality degraded substantially, and agricultural systems became more prone to climate fluctuations. Over time, farming communities found themselves increasingly dependent on external markets, deepening socio-economic divides that continue to affect smallholder farmers.

Seed saving is crucial in order to maintain crop diversity. Producers like OOO Farms work with Adivasi communities in the tribal hamlets of the Western Ghats to bring back heirloom seed varieties once lost to hybridisation and industrial processes. Since 2017, they have preserved thousands of diminishing varieties by setting up seed banks, where farmers dedicate a part of their land every crop cycle for varietal conservation.

Single-origin

If a food product can be traced back to a specific geographic region, including a farm, and does not mix ingredients derived from different sources, it is deemed single-origin. While the term is popularly used in the context of coffee or chocolate, it also applies to other products such as spices and honey. 

Take Vnya, for example, whose single-origin, monofloral varieties of honey include wild jamun harvested by beekeepers in the forest divisions of Laldhang and Kotdwar, lychee from orchards in Rani Pokhri, and wild eucalyptus from the Chidiyapur forest range, all in Uttarakhand. 

Similarly, at Nilgiri Marten Spices, each spice sold is cultivated, harvested, and processed in the same region. For example, Lakadong turmeric from the Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, Malabar vanilla beans and green cardamom from the Idukki district in Kerala, and Kanniyakumari cloves from Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu. These regions offer conducive environments for the spice in terms of climate, soil, and altitude.

Soil restoration

Any attempt to improve the structure of the soil in order to make it more fertile is referred to as soil restoration. These processes adapt and differ across regions and soil types and the journey to betterment is often dictated by parameters such as the chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of the soil. Soil restoration is often a result of the restoration of the ecology it is situated in, creating a circular and self-sufficient system. 

Upon realising that the use of chemical inputs like urea and potash reduced soil fertility, water holding capacity, and biodiversity on their farm in Indapur, Maharashtra, Two Brothers Organic Farms worked closely with their family farmers to enrich the soil with microbiomes such as bacteria, fungi, and earthworms along with cow dung. To balance the soil’s fertility, they shifted from monocropping to mixed cropping.

Sustainable agriculture

To be sustainable, agriculture must meet the needs of present and future generations, while ensuring profitability, environmental health, and social and economic equity. This is a form of regenerative agriculture. 

Having a sustainable relationship with the land has been intrinsic to many Indigenous communities for centuries. With sustainable agriculture, the long-term goal is to enhance environmental quality and the natural resource as well as the quality of life for farmers while sustaining the economic viability of farm operations. 

For example, Kilmora, working with over 300 farmers in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district, buys produce that is grown sustainably and using indigenous knowledge, which, in turn, incentivises the farmers to sow season-specific crops that do not require any chemical inputs. They also use the profits earned to offer a fair price to these farmers, thereby championing sustainable livelihoods in the region.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Traditional Ecological Knowledge refers to the knowledge of agroecological practices and beliefs of Indigenous and local communities about the relationships between humans and their environment. These are passed down over generations, and are usually rooted in environmental stewardship and sustainable living. 

In India, the Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises the rights of forest-dwelling tribal communities to forest resources, on which these communities were dependent for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation, and other socio-cultural practices.  

Last Forest, a Tamil Nadu-based enterprise, supports forest-based livelihoods by primarily engaging with the Kurumba, Irula, Toda, and Badaga communities under the umbrella of Aadhimalai, a collective of tribal producers and farmers from the Nilgiris that use Traditional Ecological Knowledge to create livelihoods. For instance, honey hunters in the region collect honey from wild Apis cerana and Apis dorsata bees, leaving about 10 percent of the hives untouched. This way, the bees remain unharmed. 

Traceability

Traceability refers to tracing an ingredient back to its origin source. It is an important aspect in determining the quality and the provenance of a product. Certain regions are best suited to producing certain ingredients. The climate and soil of a region—along with the farming methods used—bring out the best in an ingredient and therefore, being able to trace the ingredient to its source can be a signifier of its quality. Traceability is also important when it comes to calculating carbon miles that an ingredient has accrued over the course of its production. Many producers nowadays use traceability systems where, through tagging and logging, each ingredient’s journey is recorded and studied.

Two Brothers Organic Farms have introduced the Dynamic Farm-to-Fork Traceability feature on their website. Through this feature, they document the entire journey of a product: right from when the seed is sown, through fertilisation and irrigation, to the day it is harvested, tested, and packed. Their team documents every farm visit through photos, videos, and field notes, creating a living archive of each crop cycle. This helps consumers make informed choices about where their food comes from, who grows it, when it is planted, and how it is grown. 

At The Locavore, we bridge the gap between producers and consumers by partnering with farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs who adopt ethical, sustainable practices toward food production, deeply rooted in local, traditional knowledge. If you’d like to read more about our partners, check out their producer pages here.