Where I am there is not one single farm with in miles, overgrown woods everywhere. This is my second year on this property, its the first property I can actually call my own. We keep about 40 acres of area as off limits as a animal sanctuary and eventually will have a 5+ acre field in there down the road. We have two 1 Acre plots, there is one stand on the plot which is not hunted over. There is no point of bow hunting the plots as the shots from the stand would be a minimum of 40+ yards. The food plots unlike feeders are hit 99% of the time at night because they are open area's where deer will not roam out onto during the day, especially during the higher pressure hunting season.
Feeders ARE NOT the same as food plots. Food plots benefit ALL wild life thought out the year, they provide everything from bedding, to breading grounds, and of course the tonnage of food. They are the same exact thing as an apple orchard, oak tree's, or whatever out there native to the land or not. I'm still new to all this, and next year plan to add turnips and other things that will provide food into the winter. We plan on trying thin out the woods in our area as well to allow the tree's to mature, allow other plans to grow. Down the road once I get a tractor I'd like to start a small apple orchard that my family, my baby daughter, as well as the wild life can enjoy. We had some broccoli rabe that we picked this year, which came out amazing with sausage last weekend. Next year I plan on doing some corn, again for me, my family as well as the wild life.
So yeah, a "deer attractant" they may be in some of your misinformed eyes, but don't forget the 50 other things they are as well.