Twenty cotton farmers sit in a circle in their village of Loop de Mouhoun in Burkina Faso to recount their experiences with Bt cotton production. They are among the 500 "farmer-researchers" who documented their experience with genetically modified cotton as part of a three-year research project entitled "Bt cotton and us: the truth in our fields". This research is a valuable contribution, since Burkina Faso was the first country in West Africa to adopt genetically modified organisms and is cited by the industry as a success story and a model to be replicated in other countries. The experience related by these cotton farmers, however, reveals a different story.