Farmers and agriculture experts are sounding the alarm: The loss of immigrant workers could devastate the farm industry in the Garden Spot and across the country.

Not just farmers would be hurt, but all of us when we visit the grocery store, they say.

Tom Barley of Star Rock Farms in Conestoga was one of three speakers at an Agricultural Issues Forum Thursday at the Farm and Home Center.

He said most people don't understand the large impact the loss of foreign workers would have on farmers and food supplies.

"People talk about the high price of milk now, and food — if farms don't have access to these workers, there will be dairies going out of business," Barley said. That would cut supplies and substantially drive up prices.

"The issue is bigger than immigration," warned Rich Stup, a human resource management specialist at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Dairy Alliance. "It is an agricultural workforce crisis."

He said many more dairy farms rely on foreign workers than what the public might think.

"It is very difficult to find dairy herds with over 400 cows that don't have Hispanic milkers — that's in Pennsylvania," Stup said.

The number of immigrants milking cows across the country has skyrocketed in the last decade.

In 2000, 3 percent of milkers on farms in the Northeast were foreign-born. That jumped to 22 percent in 2003 and 43 percent in 2006. The percentage is even greater in other regions.

Stup said about 1.5 million of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country work in agriculture.

If immigrants are not allowed to work, Stup fears agriculture across the country would decline. Ag operations abroad still would have access to affordable labor but their American counterparts wouldn't.

Essentially, farming jobs would be outsourced, he said.

Stup presented a concise history of immigration in America, including Operation Wetback in 1954, when 1.1 million people were rounded up and deported to Mexico.

In 1986, the law expanded to include sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Some possible legislation being discussed by lawmakers includes requiring employers who knowingly violate the immigration law to pay $10,000 to $40,000 in fines, and for repeat offenders to serve up to 30 years in prison.

Stup told the 45 people at Thursday's forum that now is the time to tell legislators how they feel about the issue, before it is too late.

He also warned farm owners: Immigration Control is seeking legislation that would allow it access to Social Security records.

If that happens, any immigrant workers on farms whose social security numbers don't properly match payment records could be targeted, he said.

"We will have a world of change moving forward," Stup said.

Barley said most farms' immigrant workers are here legally.

Star Rock Farms farms about 10,000 acres, raises chicken layers, hogs and beef cows, and milks about 1,100 cows, he said.

Star Rock has employed foreign workers since the late 1990s or 2000. About half of the workers in the dairy operation are Hispanic.

Barley said it is not just a dollars-and-cents issue for farmers as has been reported by some national media, including CNN.

"We hire Hispanic employees because we can not find good, honest, trustworthy employees here," Barley said.

He agreed with Stup that it is not just a large-farm issue.

Barley said some small farms have one foreign worker who has essentially run the operation for years. If that worker is lost because of changing immigration rules and not replaced, the farm business could go under.

Originally, he thought dealing with workers who spoke a different language would be a problem.

But that is a challenge that is quickly overcome, he said, and the employer is left with someone who does quality, consistent work.

Many of the foreign workers come from places where wage rates are a fraction of what they can earn here, Stup said. They often send money back to relatives in their native country.

Michael Melhorn, owner and operator of Mainjoy Unlimited Inc. in Mount Joy, said many foreign workers here are not interested in amnesty or citizenship, just finding a good job.

Many just want to earn as much money as possible in five or seven years and then return to live in their country.

Melhorn said the poultry industry, which he is involved in, considers its foreign workers "essential" and it would have a "huge worker shortage" if they were lost.

Tom Baldrige, president of The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry, recently wrote in a Business2Business magazine article that the issue of illegal immigration and its challenges stands to impact Lancaster County.

Any attempt to resolve the issue should not be a quick fix, he wrote.

"To suggest a draconian approach for an immediate solution over an issue that has been evolving for years is, quite simply, reckless," he wrote.