Holly Farms Corp. v. NLRB, 517 U.S. 392, 7 (1996)

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398

HOLLY FARMS CORP. v. NLRB

Opinion of the Court

of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities (including commodities defined as agricultural commodities in section 1141j(g) of title 12), the raising of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals, or poultry, and any practices (including any forestry or lumbering operations) performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market." 29 U. S. C. § 203(f).

This definition, we have explained, "includes farming in both a primary and a secondary sense." Bayside, 429 U. S., at 300. "Primary farming" includes the occupations listed first in § 3(f): "the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities . . . [and] the raising of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals, or poultry." 29 U. S. C. § 203(f). "Secondary farming" has a broader meaning, encompassing, as stated in the second part of § 3(f): "any practices . . . performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market." Ibid.; see Bayside, 429 U. S., at 300, n. 7; Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Co. v. McComb, 337 U. S. 755, 763 (1949) (secondary farming embraces "any practices, whether or not themselves farming practices, which are performed either by a farmer or on a farm, incidently to or in conjunction with 'such' farming operations").

If a statute's meaning is plain, the Board and reviewing courts "must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress." Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 843 (1984). When the legislative prescription is not free from ambiguity, the administrator must choose between conflicting reason-

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