Remembering Penny Hanson (1939 to 2002)

"Genetic modification in plants may look innocent, but it is far too
dangerous a weapon to be let loose"
- Penny Hanson, 2 July 2001

Penny Hanson, amongst other things, will be remembered for pulling up GM crops. On Thursday 2 May she collapsed and died whilst on her way to work on an organic farm in Ghana. She was 63 years old. She regularly worked on organic farms and had been very excited about going to Ghana.

Penny seemed to be such a private person on the details of her life,
somewhat enigmatic, and yet she was generous in sharing herself. She
played the church organ and drove an old Morris. She excelled at
cat-napping without losing the plot. She resisted the poll tax - refusing to pay because they wouldn't let her pay enough for her fair due! She supported other GM crop pullers in court and was prolific in writing letters.

I feel honoured to have shared some of the last things Penny did in her life that meant so much to her. My first contact with her was last June 2001 when she asked me, on the phone, to come to Lincolnshire to help her pull up GM crops at a site in Low Burnham. How fantastically brazen! It always makes me smile when I think of that. When I met her she seemed so old and frail, I was worried about her, whether she could cope with the stress and the physical exertion of a night of GM crop pulling. She seemed anxious. Me too. Her strength of spirit eclipsed her physical frailty. She was absolutely determined and relentless. What an amazing conspiracy we had going - I wonder if you can have a conspiracy of just two? Two people can fight back-to-back, said poet Marge Piercy. And we did.

Two days after our crop pulling action we met in London to deliver our
statements explaining our action, along with a bouquet of GM oilseed rape to Michael Meacher at DEFRA. Penny didn't like having her photo taken at this event, but she decided to put up with it. We were not arrested.

Farmer Durdy did not allow any further GM trials on his land.

Penny took the brunt of the police's attention because she was nearest to the Lincolnshire police. I think it got to her. She wouldn't allow me to try to steer their attentions in my direction. She would phone me up to tell me the latest each time the police had visited. When we finally got the letter from the police to say they were not going to charge us, it was a relief, because I didn't want her to have to go through the strain of court.

If we had gone to court she would have been inspirational and we would have won.

We won anyway.

Thank you Penny. Most of all I'll remember and cherish your friendship.

Rowan Tilly, 6 May 2002