Abstract: Food sovereignty is a concept based on an idea of food security (a varied diet with diversified, nutritious and culturally appropriate food) for everybody including the right of people to define their own food and agriculture, to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable development objectives. In this paper we explore the concept of food sovereignty in relation to the current development of the European food systems with special emphasis on social food networks, and agricultural learning network building. Food sovereignty is often discussed in the Global South, e.g. Latin America, where the concept developed in strong popular movements. Which lessons can we learn from others, e.g. the so‐called ‘developing countries’? Danish and French cases will represent and contrast food system policies and social food and farmer networks in the North‐Western European context. Based on this, we will discuss the special opportunities and challenges for reaching food sovereignty considering the current globalised world, challenged by financial and environmental crisis. Our agriculture has generally become increasingly industrialized and food systems increasingly controlled by major companies. This influences how feed and food is transported, stored, traded, consumed and wasted. Complex knowledge (including traditional) about agricultural systems and social relations in agriculture and food gets lost. The Common Agrarian Policies (CAP) influences the development of local alternatives farming systems and national food sovereignty. We will discuss the potential role and tendencies of alternative farming and food systems (e.g. organic, mixed farming with agro‐ecological basis) based on cases where consumer‐farmer networks increase common knowledge about food production, act and interact collectively for local social and political change by building food systems over which they as local communities can take ownership and control.