Peasant Evolution Producers Cooperative

Who we are

Peasant Evolution Producers Cooperative is based at Fivepenny Farm, on the Devon–Dorset border, but its aims reach beyond the farm itself. As set out in our certificate of incorporation, PEPC exists to support and encourage livelihoods built on organic farming, environmentally sound forestry, rural crafts, the local economy, fair trade, and environmental land management.

We provide and maintain the shared resources — marketing, processing, and value-adding facilities — that make trades and businesses connected to those aims possible. And we work to grow the number and strength of small-scale, ecologically-orientated farms by encouraging cooperation, shared knowledge, and collective marketing among our members, and by educating the public about the benefits of small-scale sustainable farming, local food, traditional processing, ecological living and building, rural crafts, and fair trade. Much of that work happens through the Land Skills Hub, which trains the next generation in sustainable farming and traditional land-based crafts.

How we’re structured

PEPC is registered as a cooperative — a company limited by guarantee rather than shares, run by its members rather than outside investors. Land and shared infrastructure are held in common, while several independent enterprises operate under the cooperative’s roof, each bringing their own trade to the wider community.

Steering Group

The Land Skills Hub is guided by a steering group that reaches beyond PEPC’s own membership. Its role is to keep our education work accountable to the communities it’s meant to serve — especially people from minoritised groups who don’t typically have access to training in land-based skills, and who we want at the centre of this work rather than an afterthought.