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After its adhesion to the EU in 1986 Portuguese agriculture benefitted from a continuous flow of European funds aimed at the modernization of the sector in order that it might face the shock of competition with more developed agricultures. However, enough evidence exists to show that the crowding out of Portuguese capitals was counterproductive to the political objectives. In fact, despite the EU transfers, in only two of the years from 1980 to 2009 did agricultural investment attain identical levels to those prior to integration. If one considers investment as being the best indicator to explain the poor results of Portuguese agriculture over the last three decades, my argument is that this evolution needs a retrospective analysis focusing on the concept of financialization of the economy induced by EU and national policies. Therefore, this chapter is an explanatory attempt to open a broad discussion on the role of financialization in agriculture and rural development issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]