Rabhi's father—who was a blacksmith, musician, and poet—became acquainted with a French couple (an engineer who was a primary school teacher and his wife) when they came to work during the colonial period at the compagnie des houillères (coal-mining company) in his native village.

They had a child and, with no knowledge of agriculture, Rabhi registered with a Maison familiale rurale (a centre run by volunteer groups, funded by the French national and regional governments) and earned a certificate.

Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara supported the project and wanted to make agroecology a national policy before his death in 1987.

Preparing for the altermondialisme (alter-globalisation) movement, Rabhi was invited to the European Social Forum; one of his speeches was "Donner une âme à la mondialisation" ("Giving a Soul to Globalisation").

President of Terre et Humanisme, Rabhi was a member of the editorial board of the French monthly La Décroissance, and was vice-president of the Kokopelli Seed Foundation.

The foundation works to protect biodiversity in the production and distribution of organically- and biodynamically grown seeds and for the regeneration of fertility in cultivated soils.

Rabhi promoted disciplines stemming from Rudolf Steiner, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophic medicine, some of which are considered pseudoscience.

[6] His agronomic skills were contested; despite claims of outstanding results through his agricultural techniques, no external assessment of his work was ever done following a critical evaluation by René Dumont in 1988.

[4] An independent investigation led by the skeptical organization Association française pour l'information scientifique reported that his farm at the Mas de Beaulieu did not yield enough crops to feed his employees (despite hundreds of volunteer workers), in contrast to Rabhi's claims of good results.