Pierre Rabhi was born into a Muslim family in Kénadsa, near Béchar, an oasis in southern Algeria, in 1938. His mother died when he was four years old. His father who was a blacksmith, a musician and a poet, got to know a French couple, an engineer and his wife who was a primary school teacher when they came to work at the Compagnie des Houillères (Coal mining Corporation) in his native village during colonisation. As this couple were unable to have a child and young Pierre’s father was worried about his son’s future, he accepted that the couple bring up his son on the condition that he continue to be a good Muslim. Later, his father would find himself obliged to close his workshop and to go to work in the mine. This would influence the thoughts and philosophy of his son. Thus, Pierre Rabhi’s childhood was shared between France and Algeria and the catholic and Muslim worlds until the age of 14. He chose to convert to Christianity when he was sixteen years old. He completed two years of secondary education but had to stop because his family were unable to cover the costs. When the Algerian War broke out in 1954, at the start of the war he was rejected both by his father for having converted to Christianity and by his adoptive father following a dispute. He decided to settle in Paris.

Without qualifications, he found work as a technician. He would later marry Michelle whom he met in the company where he worked. Both of them harboured the dream of getting away from this urban life and thought about the possibility of working in farming. He met a doctor called Pierre Richard, an ecologist and visionary involved at the time in the creation of the Cévennes National Park, who encouraged them in the steps they took. They then decided to move to the Ardèche department to remain there permanently from 1960 on. In those years, this was quite an original move to make, because they went well before the French neorural movement of the late 1960s.

On arriving in Ardèche, they married in Thines. Pierre Rabhi became a father and with no knowledge of agriculture, he registered with a Maison familiale rurale — a centre run by volunteer groups funded by national and regional government in France — and gained a diploma.In 1963, after three years working as an agricultural worker, he became a small farmer himself in the Cévennes ardéchoises starting out as a goat farmer with the intention of not following the productivist models he’d seen in the previous years.

In 1978, he was given responsibility for training in agricultural ecology at the CEFRA (Centre d'études et de formation rurales appliqués-Centre for a applied rural studies and training). From 1981 onwards, at the request of the countries government, he was to visit Burkina Faso as a « farmer without frontiers » this work being funded by the CRIAD (Centre de relations internationales entre agriculteurs pour le développement — Centre for international relations between farmers and for development). In 1985, he set up the agroecology training centre at Gorom-Gorom, with the support of the association Le Point-Mulhouse. In 1988, he founded the CIEPAD (Carrefour international d'échanges de pratiques appliquées au développement — International forum for the sharing of knowledge about applied practices) with the support of the Hérault Regional Council. He developed an « optimised model for an agricultural site », educational and training programs and started numerous oversees development programs in Morocco, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisiea, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Mauritaniea, Poland and the Ukraine. In 1992, he started the program for the rehabilitation of the Chenini-Gabès oasis in Tunisia. Since 1994, he has led the « Oasis en tous lieux — An oasis in any place »movement, aiming to promote an earth that can produce food and the reconstitution of social involvement. In 1997 and 1998, at the request of the UN, he was asked to prepare concrete proposals for implementation of his plan during preparation for the Agreement on action against desertification / Convention de lutte contre la désertification (CCD). From 1999 to 2001, he started new development initiatives in the Agadez region in Niger and the Gao region in Mali. In 2002 he set out on a pre-presidential campaign in which he obtained the support of184 elected representatives and the birth of the Mouvement Appel Pour une Insurrection des Consciences (MAPIC)/ Movement Calling for an Insurrection of Consciences. He regularly leads conferences and workshops on themes relating to simplicité volontaire/simple living and to décroissance/de-growth. Considered to have prepared the ground for the altermondialisme / alter-globalisation movement, he was invited to the European Social Forum, and named one of his speeches « Donner une âme à la mondialisation/Giving a soul to Globalisation ». In 2007 he set up the « mouvement international pour la terre et l'humanisme »/international movement for earth and humanism1. He is president of the Terre et Humanisme association, was a member of the board of editors of the French monthly La Décroissance / De-growth and is vice president of the Kokopelli association which works to protect biodiversity ( in the production and distribution of organically and biodynamically grown seeds..) and for the regeneration of the fertility of cultivated soils.