As far as whitetails are concerned,,,, I live in Iowa. This state is a whitetail food plot from the Mississippi river on the east to the Missouri river on the west, from the northern border with MN. to the southern border with MO.

You really see no difference in hunting over a pile of corn as apposed to hunting a small portion of a field that may be 40 - several hundred acres?

Baiting deer is legal in some states.

If hunting over something that deer eat was illegal, deer hunting would be illegal.

Food plots benefit a wildlife population for several months of the year, many of those months are when the season is out, bait piles do not.

I have no stastical figures but I would venture to guess that food plots help to sustain far more wildlife than they help to kill. Again, bait piles do not.

Food plots require hours & hours of labor throughout the year to maintain & represent a serious financial investment, bait piles do not.