In the last few years, agriculture has regained centrality in contemporary debates. In this scenario, History has been increasing its importance. On one hand, the deeper understanding of environmental, social, economic and political impacts of the activities related to agriculture requires that current matters are examined in an historical perspective. On the other hand, the tendency of different sciences to emphasize historicity of the subjects means that the past has become an explanatory resource increasingly used by researchers from different scientific backgrounds. It is a verifiable fact that in Portugal, since the Eighties, the agricultural and rural issues have lost relevance in the historic analysis. In the meantime, the scattering of the studies and the absence of a regular academic debate, has made it difficult to renew the knowledge about agricultural and rural themes (Portela and Caldas, 2003; Baptista, 2004). In the circunstances of ongoing international discussions, it becomes necessary to reevaluate the roles of agriculture in the Portuguese contemporary history and, thus, widen the comparative frame within the European and Global History. The project focuses on examining the agriculture in Portugal, between 1870 and 2010. This analysis begins in 1870, when the intensification of international trade and technological innovations boosted constant readjustments in policies, agricultural practices and European consumptions. The research extends to the present (2010), so that it is possible to integrate the Portuguese pathway in a wide time frame and in the European and worldwide context. To evaluate the transformations that, in these decades, left a mark in the primary sector is essential to understand the current Portuguese society and economy. And also to guide policies which aim at agriculture and rural development. Thus, because the historical research wishes to clarify today's questions, this project helps to deepen understand of three issues that define contemporary debates: food, development and sustainability. 1. To examine issues of production, supply and food prices. Although, historically, agriculture has fulfilled its mission of feeding the world (Frederico, 2005), this mission presents chronological and spatial differentiations that need to be clarified (O'Grada, 2009; Sen,1981). For the Portuguese case, several authors provide information about the circumstances in which national agricultural production provided, or not, the goods that the population lacked. They also indicate, sometimes, how the public policies and the market trends influenced the supply to the consumers (Reis, 1993; Baptista, 1993; Lains, 2003; Rosas, 1994). However, the different spheres of activity have been separately analyzed and studies on transformation processes and conditions of consumption of agricultural goods are rare. Once the relevance of inter-relating the various activities associated to food supply (production, trade, transformation, consumption) is recognized (Goodman, 2002), it becomes necessary to understand how the various dynamics that influence agricultural products supply and demand, are historically articulated amongst themselves. 2. The terms in which agriculture has contributed to economic growth and changes in contemporary society have been under review (Lains, Pinilla, 2009). Stepping away from the traditional view of agriculture as a mere provider of factors (manpower, raw materials, food) for industrialization, new interpretations stress the importance of the urban-industrial expansion to the development of agriculture. It is necessary to widen the integrated analysis of all sectors involved in economic development. And among other things, the institutional framework and the directing of incentives to farmers, needs to be examined (Hayami, Ruttan, 1985). For Portugal, the main economic indicators of the primary sector and its contributions to economic growth are already systematized (Brito, 2005; Lains, 2009). But it is yet to be evaluated the regional distribution according to economic sectors and productive subsectors (crops, livestock, forestry). It is therefore difficult to assess the agricultural subsectors functions and the inventory of the causes of regional differences in income distribution. A disaggregated analysis will help to understand the historicity of the country's imbalances and to introduce the Portuguese case in international debates. 3. The changes in agricultural practices and public policies orientation (especially the Common Agricultural Policy), which are more frequent since the 1990 have emphasized the sustainability of the production and the consumption of agricultural goods. Although in Portugal Environmental History didn't had the same development as compared to other countries, the negative impacts of the application of agriculture modernization models, which were growingly implemented in the West, since the Nineteenth Century, have been shown. But rather than acknowledging the conditions (ecological, social, technical, institutional, etc.), in which the productive activities took place, it is necessary to assess how the historicity of practices and sustainable knowledge can be associated with biodiversity and rural development (Ploeg, 2000; Brouwer, 2004). It is pertinent to examine how lay knowledge and scientific knowledge interconnect (Bruckmeier, Tovey, 2008; Truninger, 2010), in order to enable production models which meet the food needs of consumers, respecting social and ecological sustainability criteria. The members of this project team have been contributing to the clarification of these issues (Branco, Parejo, 2010; Figueiredo, 2008, Freire,2007,Feire 2010; Seixas, 2008), in both national and international debates. But it is clear that a deeper knowledge of the "Portuguese case" requires a wider understanding of the historicity of the questions that are present in contemporary discussions.