Food sovereignty has become a popular approach or model to address hunger as well as the problems that presumably caused the global food crisis. It is defined by certain principles. At its core is the sovereignty of small farmers to produce their own food with resources and institutions that are under their control. This paper compares the concept of food sovereignty with other concepts that aim to eliminate global hunger and malnutrition such as "food security" and "the right to food". Moreover it discusses the claim by advocates of food sovereignty that their approach is being constrained and undermined by certain trade rules as provisioned in the WTO. Despite some reservations about their effectiveness, the positions articulated by the food sovereignty side are increasingly guiding national policy responses to the price spikes in the global food sector. This is revealed by the renewed national focus on food production, higher targets for food self-sufficiency, increased attention to small farmers and to inequities in their access to productive and natural resources as well as markets. However, such policies are hardly ever constrained by the WTO Agreement on Agriculture which offers most member states sufficient policy space to address their particular national concerns about food and agriculture.