Friend of the Earth was founded in 2016 on the initiative of Paolo Bray, founder, and director of the World Sustainability Organization, which is based in Italy and operates worldwide and whose key objective is the conservation of ecosystems.

Friend of the Earth is an international certification scheme for sustainable agriculture and breeding that has been developed within the guidelines of the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and whose principles are based on the safeguarding and protection of the entire ecosystem.