If the dark bellies of our food system were constantly dragged into the light we'd be inundated with stories like these: Pig "brain machine" cripples Hormel workers, chemicals hospitalize 173 Tyson Chicken employees and undercover video documents unspeakable pig abuse.
Did undercover anthropologists document the mating habits of the New York straphanger - Commuteris downcastus - in its native home?
Chris Atkins, a filmmaker based in London, decided to turn the tables, going undercover to document dubious reporting methods in the tabloids' pursuit of celebrity scoops.
Ordinary folks - settlement house workers, off-duty state Excise Department employees, dry-goods jobbers - moonlighted as denizens of the demimonde, going undercover to document a profusion of turpitude in the bustling city.
Hsiao-Hung Pai, who went undercover to document the stories of the hidden Chinese workforce in this country for her book Chinese Whispers, reports that a Chinese DVD seller who was at the rally called her two days later and asked "So when is it gonna happen?" He didn't realise that, like most Chinese, he would not be eligible as he did not speak English.
Earlier this year, VICE News correspondent Ben Anderson traveled to Bahrain undercover to document the ongoing protests there.
His experience working undercover is documented in his memoir The Infiltrator.
To make this matter even more urgent, yesterday IHOP's primary egg supplier, Michael Foods, was the subject of a gut-wrenching undercover exposé documenting egregious animal cruelty and severe food safety concerns.
But both men were already under surveillance by an undercover agent, court documents said.
In November 2009 Cunningham met a Nottinghamshire police detective who checked he "was aware" of the intelligence obtained by Kennedy in his undercover role, the documents say.
