George Hormel was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1860, but his family soon settled in Toledo, Ohio. As a youth, Hormel worked in his father's tannery before heading to Kansas City to seek his fortune. There he worked as, a traveling wool buyer. He did not find the fortune he was seeking, so he moved to Chicago.

With only a slight change of direction, Hormel became a hide buyer. But a vacation in 1887 changed his life. That year, while visiting friends in Austin, Minnesota, he learned of a butcher shop that had closed after a fire. Hormel borrowed $500 from his boss and reopened the shop. Next he converted a creamery into a meat market, and by 1893 he controlled most of the meat business in the area. The turn-of-the-century innovation of improved refrigerator cars allowed Hormel to expand outside the area, and the addition of an ice storage facility at the Hormel plant in 1899 allowed the company to process more meat. The business was successful enough to allow Hormel's father and three brothers to join him. Following World War I, his son Jay came on board as well.

In 1935, Hormel added canned chili and Dinty Moore Beef Stew to its list of products, and two years later Jay Hormel introduced Spam. Because of their long shelf life without refrigeration, the products were perfect staples during the Great Depression and World War II. At the Hormel Foods plant in Austin, Minnesota, workers today turn out 435 cans of Spam each minute. Americans now consume 3.5 million pounds of Spam per year. Worldwide, Hormel says that 3.8 cans of Spam are consumed every second.

Despite efforts by the Hormel company legal department, the name "Spam" has popped into Internet lexicon as a synonym for unsolicited bulk e-mail. According to one source, the Internet use of Spam traces its origin to a famous Monty Python sketch in which a cafe customer is offered a choice of "Spam, Spam, egg and Spam, or Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans and Spam or lobster thermidore aux cravettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy, fried egg on top and Spam." I will leave any possible connection between that skit and bulk e-mailing to the reader. In any case, representatives for Monty Python have said that the British comedians did not face my legal repercussions for the unsolicited use of the product name became it actually helped increase Spam sales.

In 1994, the Hormel Food Company rolled out its 5-billionth can of Spam. To celebrate this event, Hormel created a Spam cookbook featuring recipes that might have come from the Monty Python comedy routine. They include Macaroni and Cheese with Spam, Reubens with Spam, Spam Salsa, and Spam Salad with Sesame Dressing.