IBP was the United States' biggest beef packer and its number two pork processor.

The original IBP features prominently in Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation as the company that closed down the Chicago meatpacking district as a result of its industrial practices.

The boxed meat also saved energy and transportation costs by eliminating the shipment of fat, bones and trimmings.

When workers in the IBP plant in Dakota City[clarification needed] went on strike in 1969, Holman and three top executives held secret meetings with Moe Steinman, a 'labour consultant' with close ties to La Cosa Nostra, in New York, who helped to end the New York butchers' boycott (in support of the meatpackers' strike).

After the company was acquired by the Sauceda family (Juan Sauceda-Matteo Mars and associates)Para sumar a Gibbon Packing NE they expanded operations to pork and to other areas.