Opinion ID: 76387
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Text of the AWPA

Text: 11 The AWPA defines agricultural employment as 12 employment in any service or activity included within the provisions of section 3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. § 203(f)), or section 3121(g) of Title 26 [defining agricultural labor in the Internal Revenue Code] and the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, or grading prior to delivery for storage of any agricultural or horticultural commodity in its unmanufactured state. 13 29 U.S.C. § 1802(3). Thus, the AWPA encompasses three possible definitions for agricultural employment: (1) employment within the provisions of section 3(f) of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. § 203(f); (2) employment within the provisions of section 3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), 26 U.S.C. § 3121(g); and (3) the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, or grading prior to delivery for storage of any agricultural or horticultural commodity in its unmanufactured state. 29 U.S.C. § 1802(3). 14 In order to fall within the first two definitions of agricultural employment, the work must be performed on a farm. 29 U.S.C. § 203(f) (`Agriculture' includes farming in all its branches ... 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....); 26 U.S.C. § 3121(g) (`[A]gricultural labor' includes all services performed... on a farm, ... in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity....); see also Bracamontes, 840 F.2d at 272-73. Plaintiffs concede that their pine straw work does not fall within the FLSA definition because their work is not performed on a traditional farm, e.g., on land dedicated to the raising of crops or livestock. See Bracamontes, 840 F.2d at 272-73 (farm has been interpreted to include only traditional farms). Plaintiffs argue, however, that they fall within the IRC definition because the IRC includes plantations in its definition of a farm. 26 U.S.C. § 3121(g). While Plaintiffs refer to the land upon which the pine straw is gathered as a plantation, whether such an area is indeed a plantation within the meaning of the IRC is unclear from oral argument, the record, and the IRC. See, e.g., Kaolin Mushroom Farms, Inc. v. United States, No. 77-4379, 1979 WL 1476 (E.D.Pa. Sept.21, 1979) (unpublished opinion) (recognizing that the IRC presents a somewhat uncertain statutory framework containing circular definitions of both farm and agricultural commodity). We need not resolve this issue, however, because we conclude that Plaintiffs fall within the AWPA's third definition of agricultural employment. 15 Under the third definition, agricultural employment is the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, or grading prior to delivery for storage of any agricultural or horticultural commodity in its unmanufactured state. 29 U.S.C. § 1802(3). Because Plaintiffs were clearly handling pine straw, the narrow issue in this case becomes whether pine straw is an agricultural or horticultural commodity within the purview of the AWPA. 16 The AWPA does not define agricultural or horticultural commodity or agriculture. Because this case presents a close question and several interpretations are plausible, we carefully construe the statute, focusing first on the term agriculture. 17 A fundamental canon of statutory construction is that, unless otherwise defined, words will be interpreted as taking their ordinary, contemporary, common meaning. Perrin v. United States, 444 U.S. 37, 42, 100 S.Ct. 311, 314, 62 L.Ed.2d 199 (1979). Webster's Dictionary defines agriculture broadly as the science or art of the production of plants and animals useful to man and in varying degrees the preparation of the products for man's use and their disposal (as by marketing). Webster's Third New International Dictionary 44 (1986); see also Black's Law Dictionary 69 (7th ed.1999) (agriculture is the science or art of cultivating soil, harvesting crops, and raising livestock); 3 Am.Jur.2d Agriculture § 1, at 768 (2002) (agriculture includes preparing soil, planting seeds, raising and harvesting crops, ... gardening, horticulture, viticulture, dairying, poultry, bee raising, ranching, riding stables, firewood operations, and landscape operations). Likewise, the FLSA and the DOL define agriculture broadly to include forestry and lumbering operations performed on a farm. 29 U.S.C. § 203(f); 29 C.F.R. § 780.200 (1987) (`[A]griculture' is sometimes used in a broad sense as including the science and art of cultivating forests....). 18 Although the raking, gathering, baling, and loading of pine straw may fall within these broad definitions of agriculture, the term agricultural commodity is ambiguous because it is unclear whether the term encompasses the pine straw at issue in this case. We therefore find it necessary to consider the purpose of the statute to determine if Congress intended the terms agriculture and agricultural commodity to include the activities and commodity at issue.