This article emerged out of a collaboration with Dr. Harald Witt and Dr. Raj Patel, funded by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. Our project investigated the adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) cotton in South Africa’s Makhathini Flats, which was heralded as a case in which agricultural biotechnology could benefit smallholder farmers. Using historical, political economic and ethnographic data, we found the initial enthusiasm around GM technology to be misguided. We argue that the adoption of GM cotton is symptomatic not of farmers’ endorsement of GM technology, but a sign of the profound lack of choice facing them in the region.