Strawberry Field is primarily a rural eco-squatter community. The term eco-squatters is a unique form of rural subsistence that is harmonious with the environment, various forms of subsistence farming, with an emphasis on grazing livestock, cows, horses and goats, creates a harmony in the tropical eco-system. the eco-squatters, by being in and a part of the eco-system, are not only refraining from overburdening the environment by their presence, but they actually contribute to the health and well-being of the tropical eco-system by, in effect, grooming the tropical rainforest.

Strawberry Field started in 1972, with the passing of Donald R. Silvera, the former owner of the property. Until 1972, only sharecroppers lived and worked on the property, under common conditions of sharecropping - the farmers paid for the right to work on the property with a percentage of their yield and by also working and maintaining the property. When the property passed to his son, Donald Silva, he abandoned the sharecropping operations, and allowed the property to be used for residential purposes and subsistence farming. As 1972 was in the heyday's of Jamaican liberal policies under Michael Norman Manley, in the aftermath of the hippy era in the U.S. and Europe, and the beginning of international popularity of the reggae culture, it was natural that a few hippies, Rasta's and others formed a community that became to be known as Strawberry Field.

The prospects of a 120 room hotel complex in Robins Bay is welcome to some, controversial to others, and to some it is repugnant. If it is to happen, and that is a big "if," it will transform Robins Bay in a most drastic way. The hotel complex will become the major employer for Robins Bay and its surrounding areas from Port Annotto to St. Maria, which will (again) become a "company town," at the mercy of a single, powerful employer. A few Jamaican's will be helped, but most residents of the area will feel only the negative impact of such a development, from increases in crimes and gang activity to control access to the resort, to prostitution, relocation of indigent residents, the loss of the natural environment, pollution, and social and economic stratification. It will be, in effect, a re-colonization of the area and its people.

For recent news check the following article Jamaica: The struggle for Robin’s Bay

This material is courtesy of Dan Glaser at Abrahamia