# Benefit Optimization of Short Food Supply Chains for Organic Products: A Simulation-Based Approach
## 1 Introduction  
Conventional food supply chains include producers, processors, distributors, consumers, and food processors, and they are often networked. Conventional food is often offered using wide and long chains, where small producers struggle to be included in this structure or to strengthen their bargaining power. This situation has led to the emergence of alternative food systems in the food production market, in which production and trade play more of a role in social relationship implementation, links between individuals in the supply chain, as well as the location of production. They often create local food systems linked to the functioning of short food supply chains (SFSCs). The structure and components of trade are constantly changing and evolving. [PERSON] et al. [1] pointed to five elementsthat will play roles in creating world trade in the future: (1) technology and tools to facilitate decision making, (2) visual display and merchandise offer decisions, (3) consumption and engagement, (4) big data collection and usage, and (5) analytics and profitability. Generally, alternative food systems link local producers to consumers, wherein people try to counteract environmental degradation, economic concentration, and dependence on global, homogeneous products in the agri-food industry [2]. The creation and functioning of short food supply chains can contribute to finding new key success factors and motivators for such activities and produce measurable results, including influencing changes in profit and loss. Therefore, motives for undertaking business activity may be different from financial motives; personal goals, non-economic values, and links and development trends may be sought in the cooperation and relationships with customers, adapting to their requirements and meeting consumer expectations. Agriculture is changing and the SFSC is a consequence of the crisis in intensive farming models and consumers' expectations of fresh, safe, and high-quality products. SFSCs also help producers to establish direct relationships with consumers based on trust and building loyalty to increase the added value of their activities and their profits [3]. SFSCs play a special role in organic production. This type of activity requires producers to make an increased effort in terms of production, to maintain appropriate standards, and to pay more attention to relationships within the supply chain, its structure, and the strategy adopted. The foci include the characteristics of the product as well as composition and ingredient requirements. The related SFSC literature [4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14] allowed us to identify a research gap. The basic rationale for addressing the research subject includes an insufficient theoretical foundation for SFSCs, the lack of theoretical frameworks and backgrounds with a particular emphasis on ecological products, and the lack of simulation studies related to the optimization of activities and opportunities to achieve benefits in the implementation of the SFSC strategy, in which the starting point and leader is a producer of food products. Similar themes were found in the literature, but they do not discuss the scope and methods used as widely as we do here [9; 14]. Our research was based on the literature on SFSC and optimization studies, using a computer simulation conducted on the basis of real empirical research conducted among Polish producers of three food products in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. Empirical research was based on the SFSC market service and classification methodology available in the related literature. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 identifies research gaps and questions and presents the study objectives. This section also provides a systematic literature review. Section 3 describes the problems, including a descriptive analysis and characterization of organic production around the world and in Poland. Section 4 describes the simulation modeling with the multi-objective method based on empirical research.