Read this excerpt from "Mad Cow, Furious Farmer."
What is the main idea of this excerpt?
The disease was first detected in England in 1986, though
some scientists think the very first cases started at least ten
years before. Cows usually eat only grass and other plants,
but farmers had been feeding them a meat and bone
mixture that made the cows plumper. But somehow, at
least one batch of the mixture had become contaminated
with what was then an unknown killer: a prion.
By 1993. British farmers were reporting up to one thousand
new cases of BSE a week. Governments all around the
world reacted by increasing testing for the disease and not
allowing any cows to be eaten if they were at risk of having
the disease. As sheep can also get a prion disease called
scrapie, they were tested as well. Farmers were angry that
they were losing their livestock, and nobody knew how to
protect cows and people from the disease.
Mad cow disease ended because of government bans
on feeding cows certain foods, but people were angry
that governments did not act sooner.
Mad cow disease was originally caused when
governments allowed for cows' food sources to be
contaminated, so people were angry at their leaders.
Both farmers and customers had been aware of mad
cow disease, but they did not think their governments
should have done anything to stop it.
Both farmers and customers protested to prevent their
governments from interfering with the farming and selling
of cows and meat.
Consumers were also in a panic when they learned about