It's Your Oregon: Arlene Krasner

Arlene Krasner freely admits that she’s a “city girl.” Having lived on the East Coast for 30 years, she now calls Portland her home. If you ask her what is here favorite place in Oregon, without hesitation she will say, “Portland!”

"I love it here! It’s affordable, accessible and easy to get around in - sans a car. There are arts, theater and the ballet. What you can get in New York City, but on a smaller scale.”

The Oregon Environmental Council is not Arlene’s first volunteer effort. She participated in research to teach American Sign Language to chimpanzees through The Washoe Project. She and her husband volunteered for two years in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. San Miguel is in the mountainous region of Central Mexico, about a 4-hour drive northwest of Mexico City. Arlene was drawn to San Miguel to be a part of the city’s vibrant art scene, but grew interested in water quality for local farms. “There are organic farms that grow broccoli, lettuce, arugula and radishes, and as good as that sounds produce is impacted by water quality and the water was so bad I had to wash everything in an iodine solution before ingesting. Without clean water, nothing else happens.”

Arlene’s involvement in environmental issues and her environmental awakening arose from her passion for cooking. As a cook, her love for the best ingredients - organic when possible - is paramount. “More and more people are becoming aware of what they’re eating and how choosing fresh and local affects our environment.”

Naturally, this has led to her support of community-support agriculture (CSA) and farmer’s markets. For Arlene, her idea of a perfect Oregon day is, on a nice sunny day, to walk over to the Orenco Station Farmers’ Market in Hillsboro, or hop on the MAX light-rail line to shop at the Portland Farmers Market on the PSU campus. As she will profess, “I don’t go to the farmer market because it’s cheaper; I want to support family-run farms.”

Being a city person does not mean that Arlene doesn’t appreciate the rest of Oregon. “I’m not an outdoors person, but clean rivers and lakes are important. This is a state where people really care about the environment.”