He lives with his wife Linda, their four grown-up children, grandchildren and Poppy the dog on a beautiful, sprawling, extremely tidy set-up on 400 acres just west of Okehampton where he has about 600 dairy and beef cattle and grows the food – barley, hay, silage – to sustain them.
asserted
he → live → them
While Derek himself is scruffy and stubborn, his cows gleam, his barley is drilled in perfect lines, his fences are immaculately maintained and his hedges and verges are things of symmetrical beauty.
asserted
hedges → gleam → beauty
'I like order and neatness.
asserted
I → like → order
It makes me happy,' he says.
asserted
he → make → ?
Unlike the land that adjoins his.
asserted
that → adjoin → his
Just look at it,' he barks, as we stand in wellies in the morning mist, peering through the brambles.
asserted
we → look → brambles
This land belongs to his 61-year-old neighbour, also called Derek. Derek Gow.
asserted
land → belong → Gow
But this Derek has a very different approach to his land.
asserted
Derek → have → land
While 72-year-old Banbury is a conventional farmer who uses intensive practices to get the most out of out the ground as milk prices plummet, diesel prices spiral and the climate goes increasingly haywire, Gow is not.
asserted
Gow → use → ground
Derek Banbury is pictured left and Derek Gow is on the right.
asserted
Gow → picture → right
The farmers have two very different ways of maintaining their land
Chalk and cheese: Jane Fryer meets the Dereks
asserted
Fryer → have → Dereks
Seventy-two-year-old Banbury is a conventional farmer who uses intensive practices to get the most out of the ground as milk prices plummet
He is a big, bearded bear of a man, who wears hazardously small shorts and has spent the past few years relentlessly rewilding his 400-odd acres, rejecting fertilisers, pesticides, hedge-trimmers and mowers; smashing up all the underground drains to create a series of ponds to attract wading birds; and bringing in great stacks of fallen trees and gorse for wildlife to live in, as well as rocks to attract snakes.
asserted
wildlife → use → snakes
On top of that, he has bred and reintroduced thousands of water voles, dozens of wild boar and storks, wildcats, red-backed shrikes, glowworms and adders, released beavers into the wild and would give anything to bring back wolves.
So it is not surprising that, over the years, these neighbouring Dereks have had the odd run-in.
asserted
Dereks → breed → in
Or that when film-maker James Dawson visited Gow in 2022 to make a documentary about his rewilding and met the other Derek, he realised that any production should be about them both.
asserted
production → visit → them
The result is Derek vs Derek, a wonderful film that has turned into a low‑key global hit, packed with gentle humour, an awful lot of effing and blinding and a vital message about the gap between modern chemical-using farmers feeding the nation and idealistic rewilders.
asserted
that → turn → nation
'I don't want to broaden my mind.
asserted
I → want → mind
I don't agree with him and I never will,' says Banbury of his neighbour in the early stages of the film.
asserted
Banbury → agree → film
'Intensive farming, that's supplying the world with food.
asserted
that → supply → food
Banbury was raised on this farm and has been running it since he took over from his father in 1976
The population's getting bigger and everyone is going to be happy if they've got full bellies.
asserted
they → raise → bellies
I've done it for 50 years and I won't change.
asserted
I → do → years
As I discover when he and Poppy take me out to feed his cows at sunrise, Banbury has a few other strong views, too.
asserted
Banbury → discover → views
Starlings ('They come in flocks and go in my sheds, s*** everywhere and spread disease.
asserted
They → come → disease
I hate them, bloody hate them').
asserted
I → hate → them
But, right now, the most pressing issue around here is the plummeting price of milk.
asserted
issue → plummet → milk
While Banbury was raised on this farm and has been running it since he took over from his dad in 1976, Derek Gow grew up in the Scottish town of Biggar.
asserted
Gow → raise → Biggar
His was not a farming family, but over the years he has worked in country parks, spent a summer at his hero, the late Gerald Durrell's zoo in Jersey, written books on conservation and is credited with the reintroduction of the beaver in Britain.
asserted
he → work → Britain
He moved next door to Banbury about 20 years ago and, for a while, was a fairly conventional farmer with about 1,500 sheep and 120 beef cattle.
asserted
He → move → sheep
'He wasn't very good at it,' says Banbury with a naughty glint.
asserted
Banbury → say → glint
'But you've got to be born and bred a farmer really to understand the rhythm of it.'
asserted
you → get → it
Derek Banbury is pictured here with his wife, Linda.
asserted
Banbury → picture → wife
The couple live with their four grown-up children, grandchildren and Poppy the dog
There do seem to have been quite a few disasters where Banbury has been called to the rescue.
asserted
Banbury → live → rescue
A Land Rover that needed winching out of trouble with his tractor.
asserted
that → need → tractor
Just a couple of weeks ago, Gow drove his quadbike (along with his new girlfriend) into a pond.
asserted
Gow → drive → pond
But, eventually, Gow's worries about the parlous state of the planet and intensive farming practices became too much to bear.
asserted
worries → become → planet
'There should be a cacophony of natural sounds on our farms – birdsong, insects, colour,' Gow says.
asserted
Gow → say → farms
'But instead we've just got all these great big green deserts.'
asserted
we → get → deserts
He's got a point.
asserted
He → get → point
The insect population in Europe has shrunk by 80 per cent in the past three decades.
asserted
population → shrink → decades
And, according to the Wildlife Trusts, Britain is one of the world's most nature-depleted places, with one in six species at risk of being lost for ever – including dormice, water voles and wildcats.
uncertain
Britain → accord → dormice
In Gow's opinion, rewilding is our only weapon, so a few years back he started transforming his acres into a haven for wildlife.
asserted
he → start → wildlife
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
