Amanda Dates has over fifteen years experience in organizing, advocacy, education, research, fundraising, facilitation, and nonprofit management and administration in the sustainability movement. A significant portion of her life’s work and passion is inspired by growing up on a multi-generational farm in upstate New York. She is currently the principal of Daterra Associates, a consulting firm offering a suite of advisory services to primarily sustainable agricultural initiatives, working to develop market-based solutions to reach the greatest number of people, through strategic partnerships and cooperation. Amanda is also the Director of Fund and Program Development at Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (MESA).

Amanda was a member of the senior management team for The Natural Step. In addition to fulfilling various traditional development responsibilities, she focused on building strategic philanthropic and programmatic partnerships and collaborations. She worked closely with the R&D and Advisory Service teams on project development offerings for philanthropic investors and corporate clients. Specifically, Amanda worked with a team to develop The Natural Step’s agriculture and food systems work; building the bridge between small-scale efforts and large-scale reality by working to “mainstream” the attributes of sustainable agriculture and make it relevant for iconic companies in the food industry.

Most recently, Amanda has integrated her two passions: yoga and agriculture by developing
Going Back to the Source: Yoga and Terroir Camping Retreats.

Yoga gets us reaquainted with our true and divine selves.

Terroir is the strong sense of groundedness one feels when getting in touch with the soil, air, water, and food of a particular place.

Going Back to the Source are camping retreats held in bucolic ag regions throughout the world. Amanda's debut retreat was held in beautiful West Marin, CA last autumn at Slide Ranch. On this three-day retreat we practiced yoga twice/day and spend the rest of our time going on farm tours through this stunning region known as the birthplace of the sustainable agriculture movement in the US. We met some of the steadfast farmers, ranchers, and fisher people who grow the good, clean, and fairly foraged food you see in the farmers markets, restaurants, and retail stores in the CA Bay Area.

Although the conditions were rustic, the food was three star because Chef Russ procured everything from the local farms, creameries, and ranches and prepared decadent, wholesome meals!

Amanda's next Going Back to the Source Retreat will be in Spring of 08, also in Northern CA. The one following will be held in Fall 08 in Normandy, France.

Amanda is an Oakland-based yoga instructor, registered with the Yoga Alliance.  Amanda teaches a vinyasa flow style of yoga and with breath and movement, encourages students to move beyond their self-imposed limitations to access the profound spaciousness within. She teaches at Satori Yoga Studio and Moksha Life Center in San Francisco, Inner Heat Yoga in Berkeley, and West Oakland Yoga in Oakland. Amanda also teaches at national conferences targeted to the sustainability community.

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Going further back Amanda was the Director of Development for an environmental justice and economic development organization in Bayview Hunters Point district in San Francisco. In this role, Amanda sought support and funding from diverse sources for several community development projects such as: a low-income farmers market, CSA, youth enterprise, habitat restoration, community gardens, and urban farms. Amanda has worked as a development consultant for several organizations in and around the Bay Area that are focusing mainly on the links between sustainability and food, justice, health, and economic development – with much of her time spent in underrepresented communities. Amanda was Program Director for the “Get Counted” Campaign in Bayview Hunters Point – an effort that focused on door-to-door census education in the public housing projects in San Francisco, as well as, a founding member of the Advisory Council for the Ruth E. Smith Foster Care Project – focusing on environmental health and food access for at-risk families in the foster care system. She currently serves on the board of directors for
Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ).


Amanda has experienced and made the link between sustainability, agriculture, and human rights on five continents. She has done pre and post-production work on two films: El Popo, a story about indigenous farmers' relationship with an active volcano in south central Mexico and another film about sustainable urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba.

She received a BS in Communications and Journalism from the State University of New York at Fredonia and has completed her course-work toward an MA in Environmental Conservation Education with a concentration in Multicultural Environmental Education from New York University.

In 2004 she reached the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. In 2005 she completed a six-month yoga teacher training and received a certification in Hatha/Vinyasa Yoga, with a goal to offer the benefits of yoga to those communities with little economic or cultural access to the practice. Amanda currently teaches six public classes/week, monthly workshops, and annual retreats. In addition she practices Qi Gong, daily meditation, and is an avid gardener. Amanda is trained in facilitation, and conflict resolution/peer mediation and finds infinite value in building non-traditional multi-stakeholder partnerships.