In many cases food plots are helping to restore natural habitat. It can be planting/fertilizing oaks and other trees, food shrubs and other natural plants. In many ways the food plots take pressure off of the natural environment. Check some of Farm Hunters posts. His underbrush has grown back since he started tilling the soil.

Deer populations may be high due to the animals utilizing agricultural crops during the growing season.Plots assist the animals through the winter. The alternative would be starvation as the main predators have been removed from the food chain. It would be more natural to have predators but I don't think the general public would be keen about wolves in the suburbs.

CWD is a disease which affects healthy and unhealthy animals. It may spread quicker due to feeders but food plots tend to be more spread out.
The same type of congregation of animals happens in the wild at apple, oak,and persimmontreesbut I don't think that you'd want to cut them down to prevent the spread of CWD?

So many changes havetaken place in the natural environment that even our wilds are nothing like they were before settlement. They are lacking Chestnuts and many other food trees that have been timbered and removed from the natural environment.We prevent natural burn cycles which wouldremove the tree canopy and foster new undergrowth for wildlife feed.What you call natural in many cases is unusableby deer.Imported grasses have displaced shrubs and seedlings that they feed on. Properly planned food plots in many ways are only assisting the deer in an environmentthat is not "natural".

Dan O.