![Working the fields in Wylerfeld Bern, April 1943.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anbauschlacht-sbb-titel-300x225.jpg)
The Swiss railways and food security
During the Second World War, there was a massive expansion in land used for agriculture in Switzerland to counter food shortages and difficulties with importing. Land that had been allocated for railway line construction was used instead for growing potatoes during the war years.
![Federal Councillor Friedrich Traugott Wahlen, around 1965.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Bundesrat-Wahlen_LM-115138-300x300.jpg)
![Railway staff working the land near Freienbach in the canton of Schwyz, May 1942.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anbau-sbb-300x234.jpg)
![Storage area for tracks near Winterthur...](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/schienenlager-1-300x197.jpg)
![... was converted to arable land in the 1940s.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/schienenlager-2-300x198.jpg)
![Unused track used for grain cultivation around 1943.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/blindgleis-230x300.jpg)
![Railway guard house in Schmitten Freiburg against the backdrop of the cultivation drive, August 1942.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/warterhaus-294x300.jpg)
![Filling in ditches and depositing humus alongside the tracks, April 1945.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/acker-297x300.jpg)