The ultimate promise of artificial intelligence lies in sorting cucumbers

Farming in Japan is different than the United States. The average Japanese farm is just 4.8 acres, and more than 1.5 million small-scale food producers punctuate Japan's mountainous islands. In contrast, the average US farm size is 434 acres. Japan's distributed model poses an issue: The price of modern, high-efficiency farm equipment demands a large operation to cover costs. One small farm, however, is turning to homebrew artificial intelligence instead of buying the standard machinery.