HARRISBURG -- More voices have joined the opposition to the state's plan to impose first-time tolls on Interstate 80.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, joined by food industry executives, agribusiness firms and farm equipment dealers, spoke out yesterday against the proposed tolls, which are being sought by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission but which still must be approved by federal transportation officials.

The opponents to the I-80 tolls urged state legislators, who are to return to the Capitol Sept. 15, to find alternative methods for raising $1 billion a year to fix crumbling highways and bridges and aid financially ailing mass transit systems.

"The grim reality is that the tolling of I-80 will impose a terrible toll on agriculture and our food industry, which generates $45 billion to the state's economy each year," said Carl T. Shaffer, farm bureau president, who has a farm in Columbia County that is divided by four-lane I-80.

"The tolling of I-80 will add to farmers' costs," he said. "Whether it's getting [materials] we need to our farms, or moving our products to the marketplace, we will be hammered both ways."

The tolls on I-80 were one of two revenue-raising measures contained in Act 44 of 2007, which was passed by the Legislature in July 2007. The other method is raising the tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike by 25 percent in January. Together, those two measures were intended to generate about $950 million a year for roads, bridges and mass transit.

The I-80 tolls still must be approved by Mary Peters, federal transportation secretary. Without citing any sources, Tollroads News, an online publication that looks at toll roads around the nation, said it expects Ms. Peters to deny the bid to toll I-80, perhaps within a couple weeks.

Turnpike Commission officials, who submitted the tolling application to the feds in July, said they don't know exactly when they will get an answer.

Officials of the food-processing industry said they could be severely hurt if tolls are imposed. David Geise, president of Furmano Foods, said his firm ships 5,000 truckloads, or half its annual production, on I-80 from a plant in Northumberland County. There also would be higher costs for shipping materials to its plant.

Tolls would put the firm "at a competitive disadvantage," he said. "The additional cost is estimated at $400,000 [annually]."

Pennsylvania Co-Operative Potato Growers Director Roger Springer said that if tolls are put on I-80, "The end result will more than likely be one of the last nails in the coffin for many of the potato growers in the state."

If the proposed I-80 tolls are rejected, Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to lease the turnpike to a consortium of Spain-based Abertis and New York City-based Citigroup, for a fee of $12.8 billion, likely will rise to the forefront as a way to raise road and bridge repair funds.