Part of the Series
Ladydrawers
Welcome to “Growing Season,” the fourth installment of The Ladydrawers Comics Collective’s ongoing comics journalism series for Truthout. Following the success of “Our Fashion Year,” in which we traced connections between the garment trade and the sex trade in comics (coming soon in book form), we decided to let readers decide what we’d look at next. Overwhelmingly, you said: food! Luckily, our collaborator, Sarah Becan, is one of the best food-focused comics creators in the business and we’re thrilled to bring her back for the first few strips.
“Roots and Migrations,” the first strip in our series, looks at how food culture and traditions came to the United States; for our April strip, we will talk to the folks trying to keep the food traditions that predate colonization alive. Our aim is to explore race, health and public policy by looking closely at what we eat and where it comes from, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you.

Important Message: Please Read
For 25 years, Truthout has survived by publishing impactful investigative journalism and analysis; distributing full editions 365 days a year; and building a community of readers who support us with small, hard-earned donations.
Eighty percent of our $3 million yearly budget comes from small donors alone. Of those, 8,000 readers support us with monthly donations. Back in 2018, when Facebook decided to suppress the circulation of posts made by organizations, thereby cutting readers off from seeing many articles shared by the news organizations they had intentionally decided to follow, Truthout’s total traffic declined by 40 percent, as nearly all of our traffic from that platform disappeared.
Now, Google has recently rolled out its AI search bar, providing AI summaries instead of directing readers to our site. Google Search is our single largest source of traffic; it’s the route by which nearly one third of our readers find us. Much like in 2018, a shocking 40 percent of our Google traffic has disappeared overnight.
It will not be easy for Truthout to shoulder this blow. Nor will it be easy for our peers and collaborators — news sites that depend on traffic and aren’t bankrolled by large corporations.
If you can support Truthout with a donation today, you can help us resist the AI onslaught. Please give today.