We’re a Cooperative – What Does That Mean?

As our name hints, Atlantic Fungi is a cooperative. But what’s that all about?

In the UK, most folks only know co‑ops as corner shops or funeral directors. The truth is, co‑ops come in all shapes and sizes. There are co‑operative pubs, energy suppliers, grocers, bookshops, gardening clubs, wine merchants, farmers, housing groups, healthcare providers—even collectives of actors and musicians. If people can work together for a shared purpose, a co‑op can happen.

What Makes Co‑ops Different?

Co‑ops aren’t run by distant investors chasing profit. They’re owned and guided by the people who care most—workers, customers, and local communities. That means decisions aren’t just about money, but about values: how we earn it, how we use it, and how it benefits everyone involved.

Every co‑op around the world shares a set of principles and values, though each brings its own flavour.
https://www.uk.coop/understanding-co-ops/what-co-op/co-op-values-and-principles

Our Way of Doing Things

Atlantic Fungi is a Multi‑Stakeholder Cooperative. We love the worker co‑op model and this was our initial intention, but our members have different levels and types of investment in Atlantic Fungi. To honour this, we’ve chosen a structure that includes both worker and investor members. With a vision to add more types of membership options in the future.

Legally, we’re a company limited by guarantee, not the more common “limited by shares” setup. This means every full member has an equal say—equal stake, equal responsibility, equal voting rights—no matter how much they’ve invested or how many hours they’ve put in.

Why Co‑operation Matters

For us, co‑operation isn’t just paperwork—it’s a way of life. When we share skills, ideas, and resources, we build resilience and spark creativity. Interdependence isn’t weakness; it’s strength. Together, we can do more than survive—we can thrive.

Why the Co-op was formed - Our Spark: Fungi

Atlantic Fungi was born from a shared belief that there is another way to grow food, build livelihoods and care for the places we call home. Although each of us arrived here by different paths – through science, farming, environmental activism and a deep fascination with fungi – we were all searching for a way of working that felt more connected, more collaborative and more regenerative. We didn't just want to grow mushrooms; we wanted to cultivate a community rooted in shared purpose, where knowledge is exchanged freely, everyone's voice has value, and the health of people and the planet sits alongside the health of the business.

Choosing a co-operative was a natural reflection of these values. Just as mycelial networks quietly connect and nourish the ecosystems around them, we believe the strongest organisations are built through cooperation, diversity and reciprocity. Atlantic Fungi exists to cultivate more than exceptional gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. We're cultivating resilient local food systems & holistic based remedies, creating meaningful work, transforming waste into nourishment, and helping reconnect people with the remarkable potential of fungi. We hope that by working together – with each other and with nature – we can leave the land, our communities and future generations healthier than we found them.

Like the fungi we grow, we're always learning, adapting and finding new ways to support the ecosystems we're part of. We don't see Atlantic Fungi as a finished idea, but as a living network that will continue to evolve alongside its members, our community and the natural world.

Ellie Maynard

Co-founder, Co-director & Biomedical Scientist. Medicinal mushroom advocate.

Ellie works part-time as a Biomedical scientist in Microbiology, growing & studying microorganisms of the body and finding treatments when required, at Barnstaple hospital. Other half of her week currently devoted to growing & extracting medicinal mushrooms. She has always been drawn to the healing power of nature and the earth’s natural elements, blessed to have grown up in and around the ocean in beautiful Cornwall. She has an interest with the complexity of the human body and its remarkable ability to heal, adapt, and thrive, especially when nurtured with proper nutrition, movement, and holistic practices.
“Mushrooms are truly fascinating, with potent healing powers that have been celebrated for centuries across various cultures and are stunning organisms to grow & work with. Exploring the healing potential of mushrooms opens a world of discovery, where nature’s wisdom and science intersect, offering us natural remedies that have the power to transform our health & the planet’s. Their ability to restore balance and promote well-being makes them one of the most inspiring and accessible resources in medicine”.
Ellie’s other passions and joys include surfing, yoga, travelling, foraging, snowboarding, hiking, skating, & people!

Robbie Pearce

Co-founder, Co-director & long time farmer, grower & astrophysicist. Founder & soul member of Re-growth Cornwall before Atlantic Fungi Cooperative was born.

Robbie grew up growing vegetables with his grandad, farming sheep with his mum and converting barns with his dad. He gained a degree in astrophysics before returning to building and growing.

In between stints, lambing and being a private farmer to a celebrity, he ran his own award-winning Garden design and construction business. Next, he followed his future wife to Asia, where he co-founded a successful urban farming social enterprise in Singapore. Where he first started to farm mushrooms.

Returning to Cornwall 6 years ago, he bought a wreck of an old house and some land. He started a business looking at ways to turn waste products into food, which is why oyster mushrooms are his favourite. Because they are delicious and because they are amazingly efficient at taking organic waste like sawdust and turning it into tasty protein.

Tom Holmes

Co-founder, Co-director & environmental & food systems activist. Also, owner of Holmgrownland - regenerative land & garden services.

Tom is an environmental and food systems activist who has spent most of his life growing and working with the land.

“I’ve spent much of my life observing and nurturing other being’s and nature’s rhythms through land-based and embodiment practices.
Modern Human societies are so impactful on the rest of Gaia’s web that I’ve often fallen into cynical feelings that our human ways of being have passed the point of no return for reconciliation to those guiding rhythms. Having worked on some of the UK’s frontlines of resistance to ecological destruction, I’ve felt futile in the face of the machine and also felt the inspiring beauty of folk coming together with shared purpose and an openness to grow through difficult changes.
Working cooperatively with folk to generate worth beyond a wage or green marks on a balance sheet feels right for me.
Add in my years-long fascination with Fungi, the great connectors of this world. Plus, the rapidly emerging awareness of and desire for access to the many benefits consciously connecting with them can provide. The opportunity to seed, no, sporulate an organisation which, as much as possible, works outside of the insular ways we humans mostly spend our productive time was singing so loudly to me”.

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