I agree with the author. It's the same as chumming fish. Nothing wrong with either, IMO, but mnake it fair. Hunting shows on the outdoor networks have changed the face of hunting, for the worse. Glorifying food plots, herd management by land owners, and only shooting bucks.

Oh, and just to be clear, I'm not against either food plots or baiting, as long as the resource can stand the impact of the increased harvest.

Not a fan of baiting. I'd rather have the satisfaction of going to the deer and hunting him where he lives instead of baiting him to my stand.

Good point. I am both opposed of food plots and bait piles. I don't see a difference between the two besides size and cost. I'm all for improving habitat, but food plots are not habitats. If your going to improve game habitat to attract deer do it as naturally as possible by planting multiple species of various plants and trees that grow naturally in the woods, like berries, apple or nut trees, and wild grasses and improve water sources or create small ponds that collect water from run off. Clearing forest to create a field for a food plot filled with single species or genetically engineered plant is no where near natural. The big part of hunting is being in the woods and seeing nature, not sitting on the edge of a field you created where you could shoot any deer you wanted from hundreds of yards off. What ever happened to the challenge of the hunt!

Is everybody that plants a food plot wealthy?

Some private landowners planted a huge food plot just off some public land. But guess what, the deer bed on the adjacent public lands. Some smart public land hunters will be using this food plot to advantage. Some of these bucks also go nocturnal once pressured. And deer don't just feed on one food source every night and day. They like variety, too. Lot to be said about finding those oak flats and wild apple trees. I am much more satisfied with my public land deer.

"Wealty Landowners"? My family owns 400 acres in Buffalo County and are by no means wealthy. The guy who wrote the letter sounds like kind of a whiner. If he doesnt like it then buy land and plant a food plot. Writing a letter to the editor isnt going to help. Dont blame those of us fortunate enough to own land for him not having any. And by the way, dont ever tell a landowner what they can or cant do as far as food plots, crop fields, crp, or any other management tool its our right. This state has enough stupid rules without having to worry about enforcing "food plot laws".

Food plots would be a more efficient way of spreading diseases among all of the animals that use food plots. Not only deer concentrate in them.

Baited areas to a lesser degree but still an efficient way. Animals don't use individual plates or napkins what falls out of their mouths is left for somethin else to munch on.

No not only rich people use either of them. However they use it more prominantley.
They want to hold bucks in one area to make it easier on them to get in and out.
That's why most hunting shows spend lotsa time in Texas. They can bait deer and don't have to use instinct or scouting. I've seen more than one show includin ones with food plots where the camera guy accidently cameos a feeder in the background. I don't watch those shows anymore.

Guys I know can't afford to buy 135 dollar bags of food plot and all the wears to go with it. So the advantage is to he who has $$ on that one.

You can plant a food plot without the 135 dollar bags. It's called feed & seed stores. Alfalfa, corn, rye, wheat, beans especially soy, and do it near an orchard or stand of mast.

Is it fair chase to use that? Is it fair chase to use scents, cover scents calls, $400.00 scent neutralizing clothing and 200 dollar scent proof boots?

To each their own on that. I think we set a double standard on some issues. There is a potential for harm to the deer herds thru disease by using either of those methods. There is also a benefit to some. I personnaly do not use either method. One baiting is illegal in my state. I don't see it as fair chase.
I don't own land to put a food plot on and if I did I couldn't trust the nasty vermin poachers and roadside hunters not to try their handywork.

I don't like roadside hunters that stand on the side of the road, sit in lounge chairs sittin on one side of the road pointing a gun down the road or across the road to the other side. or wont get out of their trucks to go 100yards into the wood line. Lets discuss that.. BTW add another factor the roadsiders that use dogs and darn near run people off the road to stay in front of their dogs and deer. I think that food plots, roadsiders and baiting fall under the not so fair chase category.

Why doesn't F&S cover these roadside non hunters? I know i can get about 75 pictures of these guys between November and december just going to my hunting AO. BTW I hunt in the woods

Cultivating your land to draw and hold deer IS baiting, pure and simple. I'm not saying i'm against it, I just want the people who do it but denounce baiting to realize it is the same. Someone who does not have access to private hunting land but dumps a bucket of corn on some overbrowsed and overhunted public land, where legal to do so, is no less of a hunter than the guy who tills, plows, plants and fertilizes his high priced, biologically engineered clover patch and then hunts it or the guy who plants corn, only to leave it stand for the deer he hopes to shoot.

I think the 2 are very similar. Food plots take alot more work, but essentially do the same thing. I practice neither, but the North side of my hunting land runs up against a 500 ac. bean field, and a 500 ac. corn field, so I don't really see the point in doing all that work, and baiting is illegal in MO. I like the challenge of finding what the deer are eating, and guessing what they'll be eating when the crops are harvested. There's hundreds of oaks and persimmons on my ground, and that's all the 'food plot' I need.
Do the 'wealthy' have an advantage, um, DUH, hell yeah they do, but that makes it that much sweeter to bag a mature buck, and a deep freeze full of tasty does, w/o dropping all that money and time on a food plot.

I'm not sure I have alot to add to what has already been said but there are two things that come to mind that haven't been addressed above.

For those people who draw a distinction between food plots and habitat improvement, where do you draw the line? Does it have to be a native species of plant to be a habitat improvement? I'm not that stringent, to me, if you have to replant it every year, it is a food plot - not baiting, but only one step removed. If you don't have to replant it each year, then its habitat improvement.

I don't own the land I have permission to hunt and don't do either baiting or habitat improvement but when I speak to people who hunt where baiting is legal and widespread, I often hear them say that they are forced into baiting because all their neighbors are doing it - while I don't doubt their sincererity, this does sound like a convenient excuse and I tend to think that this argument only holds water when someone owns a small parcel of land.

I still don't see what the big deal is about baiting? If I choose to plant a food plot because I want to make the deer in my area healthier because I am supplying them nutrition, I should be able to. Planting food plots is more difficult than most think, getting out there on the tractor and bushhogging and plowing and then planting. Then fertilizing, its not all about just throwing seed out and putting a blind up. I bust my butt to do this, I have 32 acres of food plots. I also work all year, in the heat especially; farming 3200 acres and by God I will bait to my hearts content. Im not saying that you have to do it, but remeber guys like me, who work on their leases and bust tail to get the best herd possible. I feed corn mainly to attract does for the rut. Like it or hate it, thats my opion. Dont force something on others just because you don't do it or think its " ethical"; is wearing camoflauge ethical?

We are allowed to do both, plant food plots and feed on private land and leases, but not on wma's or nwr's. I can understand where you would come from about the private land owners planting food plots and drawing the deer away from the private land where it is prohibited. About the only thing you can do about it is to hunt as close to the private land as possible and catch the deer on their way to eat on the private land, or on their way back to bed down. It's not different than having the deer migrate over to farm land during the planting seasons. I have a farmer friend that has planted 120 acres of soybean only to have the deer come in and eat up about 20 acres of the young plants. We don't really have corn farmers this far south, but I could see where they could damage that crop also..
I have access to 110 acres of private land, myself and 2 of my sons hunt, I have electronic feeders set up at both of their places. I would rather go off in the edge of the big woods and climb and make my hunt. We are also members in a 2600 acre lease where I have about an 80 acre block that we hunt. I made a fire lane around 2 sides of, and have a box stand setup about halfway down the 300 yard firelane. It is setup strictly for my wife and kids to hunt. I dump about 50-75lbs of corn/soybean mix per week and also planted a food plot that is about 10 ft wide and 50-60ft long, with about 10 different plants to give them a better chance of seeing deer. Like someone said earlier, some feel the need to feed and plant or feed because of neighbors, I am in a similar place, I hunt at the very end of the lease and the neighbor has two box stands off property in the corners of farm land that have food plots and feeders. I hunt my climber around the corner down another fire lane between my wife/kids box stand and the neighbors stand... I choose to NOT hunt over a food plot or bait, but in turn plant and bait for my wife and kids because they don't have the skill to scout and find pattens that the deer are doing so I am trying to lure them closer for the box stand hunter.

Sometimes I watch these hunting shows and it seems that they take so much out of the sport. In some instances I see it as farming instead of hunting. Sometimes all I see is a 200 pound potato instead of a buck, a food plot can be a form of high fence in some instances. In my state it is illegal to bait and I think food plots too, so I am a little biased. I like when all hunters are on the same level and hard and smart work is the key.

Some of the private property owners like the Michigan baiting ban because, quote; "Maybe I will see more deer on my food plots now sense my neighbors can no longer bait".

We hunted harder, longer, and at a greater cost last deer season and still came up empty handed. We hunt public land.