You post about the food stamps...First of all Texas gives them a debit card. This really needs to be looked into though because weren’t they producing most of there own food?
Here in Missouri they use the card too, but it is still food stamps.
As for producing their own food, as I understand it they were largely self-sufficient (which is pretty cool as far as that goes) but I am pretty sure that there are certain foodstuffs they did not produce on their own. Among the various facilities they described the compound as having, I do not recall them mentioning a flour mill, and I am doubtful that they produce such things as sugar (though they may have beehives and use honey instead, I do not know.. I know there is a problem with africanized bees in texas). On my farm, we raise livestock and always have a nice garden... but there are some things which are simply impractical to try to produce yourself.